In case you don’t follow the tech world, highly respected journalist and personal favorite MG Siegler recently gave up email for good. The way he sees it, it’s just archaic and nothing short of “the devil”. I happen to agree. Email is more or less obsolete. It was a fabulous tool of the early Internet revolution but its day has come and gone.
Inboxes are riddled with spam, unwanted email from people you don’t even want to deal with, and notifications from other networks you participate on. It’s long, inefficient, and lacks any sort of social aspect. Email is seen as a job, not something anyone wants to participate in. Email is more of a job than something that can be enjoyed. The simplicity of Twitter, the social aspect of Facebook, and numerous other networks have changed communication. This could not be more evident in my latest experience.
In the past if and when you wanted to talk to someone on the Internet you had two main choices, email or IM. Now let’s say I wanted to ask Mr. Siegler a question about something related to tech my option was to email him and hope that in his 20GB’s of email he stumbles on my email. I also have to hope he isn’t so annoyed with other emails he actually answers me back. This is impossible.
Not the case with other forms of communication. Something quick, easy, and even social. Thanks to the new Tumblr inbox talking to someone like MG has never been easier. To date he has answered 2 or 3 of my questions. Things that would never have been addressed otherwise sorted out in minutes. As I think more and more about it, I can’t stand email. I just can’t keep myself interested enough to follow through. Why send a long annoying letter when a 140 character direct message can do?
There is no reason…
Truth of the matter — email is obsolete. I’m declaring email bankruptcy.