The other day I remembered us talking about how it was almost easier to communicate with people through social media sites such as Facebook then it was through e-mail. I decided to surf the web and see what I could come up with. Sure enough, there is information stating that social media sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn have contributed to the decline in usage of conventional e-mail. Social media sites are replacing e-mail because the same production can be done in a more efficient way. Additionally, this trend is gaining ground largely in part to the Gen-Y group's overall dislike for e-mail. However, it's not necessarily a dislike for e-mail, but rather, the popularity and extreme usage of Facebook. For example, last year I was the New Member Educator for my fraternity. I was in charge of communicating to 20 new pledges what was going on in our chapter. Many times I needed to communicate a lot of information that would typically be sent through e-mail. For the first couple of weeks I used the pledges school e-mail addresses. This turned out to be a much delayed communication process. I then decided to create a group on Facebook and send information through messages that they could look at in their inboxes. I knew they would look at the information because the majority of them got on Facebook multiple times a day whereas they were getting on their e-mail accounts maybe every other day. This way of communication proved to be much more efficient and successful.
Here a link to an article I found that gives a few more details: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/facebook_eats_away_at_email_usage_on_todays_web.php
Zach, crazy how true this is, especially on a college campus. It seems like many of the professors are still very much using email--do you think at the college level email will ever be completely eliminated? If so, do you think Facebook will be the preferred way to communicate? When I first got to school here, I strictly viewed Facebook for what it was--social. But I soon realized (just as I did with texting) that this may be considered by some to be the only logical form of communication for groupwork. It is quick, fast, and is all the things that a generation geared towards instant gratification would want. It will be interesting to see how much this type of social media changes in the next few years.
ReplyDeleteYea it is crazy how FaceBook has so easily become the preffered way of communication. In my fraternity, mass emails through blackboard are still the main way of communication, but if I need to talk to a brother quick, I would definitly utilize facebook to get a quick response.
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