Updated: September 15, 2023
Originally Published: May 13, 2023
Last week, while driving my 12-year-old daughter to what feels like her umpteenth dance class, I managed to leave a voicemail for a friend—because multitasking is my superpower. “Hey, it’s me. Just saw your email. Call me.” Simple enough, right?
Suddenly, from the backseat, I hear her burst into laughter. “What’s so funny?” I ask, adjusting the rearview mirror to catch a glimpse of her expression. But instead, I see her glued to her phone, likely engrossed in a group chat with her friends or maybe watching the latest TikTok trend. “Ugh, Mom!” she exclaims, finally making eye contact. “Only old people use email.”
And just like that, I feel a pang of realization.
I vividly remember the day I got my first email account. It was 1994, fresh out of journalism school, and I had just landed my first gig as an editor at a sports magazine. Email was the next big thing; we spent countless hours sending messages back and forth, chatting about everything from work to last night’s episode of our favorite shows. It was revolutionary, a vital tool for connection. If your workplace didn’t have email, it felt like you were missing out on life.
Fast forward to now, and my email inbox resembles a disaster zone—over 10,000 unread messages cluttering my digital space. Most of it is junk, reminders for events I’ll never attend, and updates that no longer interest me. Sifting through all that chaos just to find one important email is a tedious chore I dread. Open inbox, scroll aimlessly, sigh deeply, close the tab.
I’m not alone in this sentiment. A recent article by Mark Johnson in Tech Trends predicts that email may become obsolete by the year 2025. “There are already indications that businesses are moving away from email as their primary communication method,” he notes. “We have so many alternatives now—text messages, DMs on social media, and even chat platforms like Slack or Discord.”
Email has become a black hole, where responses are slow, discussions get lost in multiple threads, and spam filters are overly aggressive. As Johnson suggests, someone will likely find a better way to communicate digitally soon. Could that someone be our kids? At just 12 and 9, my daughters have already embraced texting, Facebook Messenger, and Snapchat as their go-to methods for communicating. This trend is also evident in many workplaces, where companies are adopting more efficient communication tools that streamline conversations. Are we holding onto email merely because it’s what we’ve always known?
When my daughters were born, I eagerly secured Gmail accounts for them, thinking I was forward-thinking by using their first and middle names. Now, I can’t help but wonder if they’ll ever even use them.
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In summary, the way we communicate is evolving rapidly, and it seems that email may soon be relegated to the past. Our children are already adapting to newer, more efficient methods of staying in touch, while we cling to the familiar. The question remains: will we adapt, or will we simply become the “old folks” still sending emails?
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