[pembrook]

Email as a communication method with your friends/family — absolutely, this has been dead for over a decade I’d say.

However, email has basically evolved into the way you communicate with “systems” and I’m kind of happy about it. Communication with companies outside your network, e-commerce accounts/purchases, communication with government systems, schools, banking, airlines, concerts/events, restaurants, etc. Hell, even RSS is now basically in email — newsletters are growing fast as a medium, not shrinking.

You just book a hotel in Nairobi? It’ll be in your email. No other communication method even comes close for this use case.

Social/chat apps will never unseat this because they’re social. Like nightclubs, the trendy ones come and go. Come back when you’ve set up an interoperable network of virtually every person on earth. Then we’ll talk about email being dead.

[JohnFen]

> Email as a communication method with your friends/family — absolutely, this has been dead for over a decade I’d say.

Email is the primary way that I stay in touch with my extended family and friends. At least for us, it's very much alive.