The End of Email

Sure, it had a good run, but email is no longer king of the Internet. The shift from email to real-time services such as Facebook, Twitter, and the upcoming Google Wave reflects a change in Internet technology. We no longer log off and on and check messages in bursts, instead we're constantly wired in, and the shift to the next generation of social networking services reflects that. As The Wall Street Journal puts it, "Why wait for a response to an email when you get a quicker answer over instant messaging?" However, the speed and ease of personal communication may have some downsides. Updates can feel impersonal because they're blasted out to 500 followers, and the constant barrage of information can make weeding out engagement announcements from shower schedules—important updates from unimportant ones—more difficult.