We barely have time to pause and reflect these days on how far communications technology has progressed. Without even taking a deep breath, we’ve transitioned from email to chat to blogs to social networks and more recently to Twitter.
In a recent post, Fred Wilson asked what is going to trump email? (implying that even email is getting old). Certainly email is still the most broadly used form of digital communication, particularly in businesses, but is it beginning to be displaced? And more importantly why?
To answer these questions, we need to understand the patterns behind all forms of digital communication. How they came about and why; and what are the differences between them. Perhaps going back and looking at regular mail, phone and newspapers can give us insights into the reasons and potential life-span of email, chat and Twitter.
Email vs. Mail
It is always useful to start at the beginning and understand the basics. How is email different from the regular mail? The obvious differences are that email is faster and virtual (i.e. not physical). And it has different economics, since you do not have to pay per email message (at least we do not perceive it this way). Now, because email is delivered faster, we send more of it. Because we send more of it, each message is much smaller than a typical letter. So thinking about it this way, we realize that email not only redefined mail, it created a completely different way of communicating. Instead of sending more information less often, we send less information more often. The speed and quantity of communication created a qualitatively different communication medium.