Facebook's COO Sheryl Sandberg recently proclaimed that email was dying since only 11% of teens use it on a regular basis.
So is email on the way out? Will texting take over?
I know experts like to look at teen/20s behavior as a harbinger of things to come. It makes sense since these kids are often tech pioneers.
But I think in the case of email Sheryl's got it wrong. Teens aren't using email since they aren't communicating anything long form. Texts are essentially short form emails.
Also, keep in mind that the current crop of teens are getting their first taste of technology via cell phones. As tech creeps younger I think we will see more kids getting online via the family/school computer before getting a phone. This means more may have email accounts before phones. I'm seeing this with my 10 year old and her friends who for the most part do not yet have phones but do use email and IM.
When it comes to long form communication, which is very needed in business and life in general, I don't see anything replacing email. Perhaps more communication may be occurring via Social Media platforms like Facebook but to me it's still just email.