Is email dying? Some friends and I contemplated that question a few weeks ago. Many of us were participating in alumni interviews for our university’s admissions office and were having trouble contacting our interviewees.
“When I email the prospective students,” said one friend, “they don’t respond.”
“That’s because you need to text them,” said another woman whose profession involves working with teenagers. “Text them to check their email, and then you’ll get an answer.”
She was right. That trick worked like a charm. But it also explained a phenomenon that happens in my own household. When my 13-year-old son needs me to pick him up from an after-school program, he texts me — and is irritated if I don’t notice his text right away. When I email him an important message, like a reminder to make a birthday gift wish list for his grandmother, he usually doesn’t answer. We both think the other person is irresponsible for not receiving (our) preferred method of communication.
Probably the lesson for all of us older people, is that if we want to get a teenager’s attention, we shouldn’t bother with snail mail, email or an old-fashioned phone call, we should TEXT THEM IN ALL CAPS.
Just kidding — all caps would be rude. Although sometimes when texting my son, I’m tempted. VERY TEMPTED.
So let’s consider the question of why teenagers have abandoned email, because it’s not just my son, it’s teenagers all across America. One problem seems to be that teens associate email with school. School districts send out flurries of emails, including nagging reminders about overdue library books and upcoming assemblies. I can see how teens might correlate emails with nagging, especially since I’m guilty of nagging my own son via email. (Face palm.)
That face palm is intentional, by the way, because another reason that teens have moved on from email is that apps like Instagram and Snapchat make it easy to communicate with pictures, fun emojis, stickers and filters. You can say a lot with a well-placed broken heart emoji or doggie-ear filter. Apps make email with is formal subject line and greeting seem boring.
Then there’s the problem of spam. My inbox looks like an advertising agency married my Yahoo account. I unfollow email lists every day, and yet ads keep popping up. When an innocent salesclerk asks me to provide my email address at the register, I’m liable to bite her head off. Is the solution to spam to abandon email altogether?
I asked my son what he thought about email.
“It’s way too formula,” he said. “Dear Mrs. So-and So,” he pretended to type. “I’m writing to you because… See? I’d rather just text someone. Plus, no one ever checks their email.”
No one that is, but people over the age of 40. Gone are the days when email was fun and the catchy little “You’ve got mail” jingle promised excitement. (Sad face.) I feel old.
Jennifer Bardsley publishes books under her own name and the pseudonym Louise Cypress. Find her online on Instagram @the_ya_gal, on Twitter @jennbardsley or on Facebook as The YA Gal. Email her at teachingmybabytoread@gmail.com.
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