[eksith]

I'll make a slight addendum: Most people have an email address if they frolic online, however I rarely meet people who prefer to conduct communications over it. Of course, they need one for FB or Twitter either way, but...

Either they go to FB or DM over Twitter or some other "social thing", but they view email as far more cumbersome. This is especially true with family these days as the first question I get is, "are you on Facebook". It's an inescapable part of society nowadays in that they view the site as something-other-than-internet and more user-friendly, more quick and more "connected", if that's the operative word, than email.

Sending/receiving text is over FB chat is still viewed as preferable to the not so straightforward method of email. Even the venerable IRC is viewed as less acceptable; "wait, don't I need a client or something for that? Won't I get viruses and stuff?" Never mind the fact that they still need a mobile client to chat over FB or Twitter, but they view it as "it came with the phone".

Bottom line: FB and Twitter have taken over communication where email once ruled for the vast majority of people I interact with. They can't be bothered with email, but they still are my friends and family.

[halviti]

I've never used Twitter or Facebook, and I have zero problem communicating with friends and family, nor have I noticed any difference in my communication with anyone regardless of wherever they spend their free time on the internet.

If someone can't be bothered to send you an e-mail or call, you might want to reconsider how close those people are to you.

[sneak]

> If someone can't be bothered to send you an e-mail or call, you might want to reconsider how close those people are to you.

Indeed, it would be very neat if the world worked that way. Unfortunately, I have, and they are, and they don't use email.

I was on facebook for ~2 years, was off for five, and have been back on for about a month. The frequency and quality of communication with almost everyone I care about and don't see often (I moved continents from where I grew up) has increased dramatically.

[tripzilch]

> I was on facebook for ~2 years, was off for five, and have been back on for about a month. The frequency and quality of communication with almost everyone I care about and don't see often (I moved continents from where I grew up) has increased dramatically.

I'm in a similar boat, almost.

A few years ago I finally succumbed to getting on FB. But after a few months I got spooked again, because of this seemingly never-ending barrage of FB-related privacy scandals at the time (and due to my interests I got a lot of such news). So I deleted the whole thing--wait no I merely shut down the account, they'd never let me delete the whole thing hahahaha :)

But currently I'm really on the fence of going back again. Because so many people around me use it as their primary mode of communication. Privacy-wise not much has changed, and "thanks" to the NSA scandals, I now know it's a lost cause whether I'm on FB or not. Use has gone way up. My meditation group plans all their things on FB and I have to use email or text to get in the loop :) They don't mind, fortunately, but it is cumbersome.

I dunno why I'm telling you this, but your last line, tell me more :) I need some convincing I guess, before I bite the bullet and go there. How many accounts should I need, you think? :)

[eksith]

  >If someone can't be bothered to send you an e-mail or call, you might want 
  to reconsider how close those people are to you.

My relationship with my family is completely orthogonal to their choice of platform.

[rahoulb]

My daughter has an email address.

If I send anything to it I need to tell her (in person, text, twitter, facebook messenger, skype - pretty much anything but email) to check it.

She has switched off notifications on her phone because all she gets are marketing messages, spam and stuff from old people (ie me and her mum).

[gngeal]

Either they go to FB or DM over Twitter or some other "social thing", but they view email as far more cumbersome.

E-mail clients need to be reinvented. There's no real reason for e-mail operation to be cumbersome. I mean, we have such a wonderful, decentralized, asynchronous messaging protocol based on pure text; why do most (if not virtually all) client applications suck so badly?

[eksith]

No argument here. It's really a shame and, if you think about it, email is the least evolved method of electronic communication for the masses in every day use (with the exception of possibly IRC).

BBM would have been the ideal email replacement (it's also still extremely popular in Asia), but too bad it's proprietary and centralized.

[alextingle]

Two reasons people prefer FB messaging to e-mail:

- Spam is basically non-existent in FB messaging.

- Mobile e-mail clients are hard to set up and use (for average folk).