Dave Ballard Recent Posts
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- Will e-mail survive the next generation?
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- Windows Vista - Virtualized Files
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- Goodbye to Windows 98
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Dec
5
Will e-mail survive the next generation?
By: dave
Filed Under: Internet |
E-mail has been around since 1965 and is today one of the cornerstones of electronic communication, but will it survive the next generation of computer users? The reason I ask this is because I recently had a discussion with other systems administrators at RIT in regards to our students using services such as Facebook, mySpace and even Instant Messaging (IM) instead of e-mail. Some students go as far as to never check their e-mail. Because of this new trend, does RIT need to rethink how electronic communication is distributed to our students? Most likely this won’t be the case for some time simply because e-mail is so easy to use and provides an excellent record of communications between faculty and students.
E-mail is so vital to the day-to-day operations of virtually every university and corporation that I can’t imagine a shift away from it as a primary means of electronic communication; however, Xerox said the same thing about the mouse and graphical operating systems when it came to desktop computing. Perhaps some day we may see a shift in technology, but I would think that as students move out into the work force, they will start using e-mail more and using services like Facebook, mySpace and IM less.
What are your thoughts on using services like Facebook, mySpace and/or IM to replace e-mail?