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MONDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2009
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 OPINION 
11

Facebook, Twitter Will Kill Email ... Maybe

Social networking sites have their place, but so does predecessor

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(Newser) – Email’s had a good run, but its day is done, according to Jessica Vascellaro of the Wall Street Journal. Email is an outdated form of communication, better suited to a time when we logged online and off, she argues. Now that we’re always connected, Twitter and Facebook are faster—and more fun. And, not coincidentally, they’re growing faster, according to the latest Nielsen data.

But Kit Eaton of Fast Company thinks that’s crazy talk. E-mail may not be as fun, fast, or flashy, but it’s well adapted to its task. You can’t embed files in a tweet, and would you trust Facebook, “with its odd history of rights control,” to handle a corporate document? Email is often informal, true, but it’s much more professional than tweeting your boss.

In this June 20, 2009 file photo, customers surf the Internet at an Internet cafe in Beijing, China.
In this June 20, 2009 file photo, customers surf the Internet at an Internet cafe in Beijing, China.   (AP Photo/Greg Baker, File)
People surf the web at an Internet cafe in Shenyang in northeast China's Liaoning province, March 6, 2008.
People surf the web at an Internet cafe in Shenyang in northeast China's Liaoning province, March 6, 2008.   (AP Photo/File)
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11 comments
VIEWING:
 
thudson
Oct 12, 09 4:05 PM CDT
wrong. Reply
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+6
IN RESPONSE:
BeatBlaster
Oct 12, 09 4:20 PM CDT
Couldn't agree with you more.
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+4
IN RESPONSE:
shonangreg
Oct 12, 09 4:46 PM CDT
...and crazy. Email can be snooped on, but you have a reasonable sense of privacy. And if you're doing something that might come back to bite you if exposed, you can always use encryption. Facebook? You never know how private any of the messages are there. Facebook messaging is like talking with a friend -- on a stage -- in the darkness -- with two microphones. Twitter is all about broadcasting -- no pretenses even at privacy there.
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+3
IN RESPONSE:
Deebles
Oct 12, 09 9:44 PM CDT
Yeah. Way wrong. I still write letters. And thousand word emails to my bestest friends. And they send huge ones back. Facebook? And have every ass from thirty years ago look your ass up? Twitter? I'd rather rip out my frontal lobe before accepting that human intrigue and interaction is a couple of characters tossed on the platform of human indifference.
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+1
IN RESPONSE:
jagerhans
Oct 13, 09 8:20 AM CDT
it is just what they wish but it is evident it's nonsense. 1) twitter is not an universal, simple protocol like smtp. other similar or better services may come in and shuffle the cards.. 2) not everybody in the world has a recent computer, and you can still send and receive emails with an i386 but try to access a web page with 8 Mb RAM . 3) i don't know how good can twitter be when dealing with large attachment files. 4) privacy is an issue more than ever and social networks are everything but privacy aware. 5) all the old apps that use to send emails for many purposes will need to be redesigned if email servers will vanish. 5) there are many ones who don't want to have a twitter account. me for instance.
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