[deergomoo]

> So - you don't use email for communication with actual people?

Nope! I may be cheating somewhat as I'm not counting work communication here, which does involve a decent amount of email, but I only access that inbox through a web browser so I can easily close the tab and be done for the day. I'm also not getting any newsletters to my work inbox.

> Do you mind me asking roughly how old you are? I would like to test my theory that email is generational and it's only the over-(insert number here) that still use it as it was originally intended

I'm 28. All my communication is via messaging apps (iMessage for family as we all have iPhones; WhatsApp for almost everyone else), so I suspect your theory is probably right!

[andybak]

Follow up question.

I find the problem with messaging services is that there's no central inbox and no decent handling of "unread".

If I get an instant message from someone that I can't (or choose not to) respond to immediately, then the chances are very high that I'll forget to respond.

But with email it stays in my inbox and I can easily set it back to "unread" for extra emphasis.

I find I'm terrible at keeping up with messaging unless it's synchronous chatting. Anything asynchronous goes out the window.

I suppose I just find everything else lacking in features that I've come to depend on in email. I just don't understand how everyone else manages.

[deergomoo]

So I think for me things typically fall into two buckets. Almost all my one-to-one communication is with family members that will just call me if I miss a message they need an answer to.

The rest (and indeed the vast majority) of my communication is via group chats, which I personally find messaging apps to handle much better than email clients. It also doesn’t really matter if you miss something, as there’s generally enough messages going back and forth that you will see something else and then remember to go back and check the thing you missed (if you even need to).

I will concede though, finding a particular instant message is a damned nightmare compared to finding an email.