Tuesday, May 04, 2010

Is email the new snail mail?

By Nat Whiting





The process of a letter: from writing to posting to processing to delivery.

It seems inordinately long and complex in this new digital age. The advent of email has made traditional post superfluous in many ways, but as social media continues to grow, email may become the new snail mai

Nielson Online's latest report showed that time spent on social networking sites had grown by an astonishing 43%, while time spent on email had dropped by 28%.

The results have people asking: are social networking sites usurping email?

With the number of people using sites like Twitter, Facebook and MySpace growing everyday, it would hardly be surprising if their dominance over the online world now includes email.

As social networking sites continue to grow and develop they have taken on some of the applications previously reserved for email: sending private messages, sharing videos or online content, contacting a group of people or simply keeping in touch.

Further supporting the idea, the report also showed that 65.1% of internet users from across the world accessed email, while 68% accessed social networking sites.

Once the new, efficient form of communication is email being made redundant? Will it become the next generation's fax machine: useful, but mainly reserved for business.

Listen in next week on Homepage when I'll investigate.


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