Is Email Adults-Only Territory?

Email as it pertains to this article is defined as the sending and receiving of electronic messages without being tethered to a web site.

Example: Your email address is you@your.isp. You send an email to friend@another.isp. The friend replies back to you, etc.

Sending an electronic message from one Facebook user to another Facebook user is not traditional email. Yes, you technically are sending electronic messages but it is tethered to that particular web site. "True" email is independent of any web site with an internal message system that cannot communicate with anyone outside of that site. You can’t send a YouTube email to a Facebook account. Or send a MySpace email to a Friendster account. You get the idea. Sites like that are literally islands unto themselves as far as their messaging is concerned.

"But I get notifications of internal messages to my email address from those sites. Doesn’t that count?" No, because you cannot reply to them without actually going into said site and logging in to do that. No matter how you slice it, you’re forced to use that site to communicate with other users of that particular system. You’re tethered. And it sucks.

In my experience, email has and continues to be adults-only territory. The unofficial age whereas people legitimately find email annoying are those under the age of 25. The only proof I have of this is in my own personal experience; I do not have any scientific data to back that up and readily admit that. Yes, I understand there are plenty of under-25′ers who do actively use email, but the ones who don’t far outweigh the ones who do.

If I receive an electronic message on my YouTube account from someone under 25 asking me about my guitar playing, I instruct: "Just send me an email to [my email address] and message me there". The reason I do this is because I absolutely hate tethered mail. I centralize as much communication as I possibly can into my traditional email address because, simply put, it’s the most efficient way to keep track of stuff. If I have all these messages sprawled across a ba-jillion social networking sites, it turns into complete chaos in short order.

Want to know what happens when I request email? Nothing. The communication stops to a grinding halt. That under-25′er has deemed, "Oh. Okay. Umm.. email is too hard to use.. never mind." And in fact, sometimes I’ll ever get another internal message saying, "Can you mail me here instead?" OH, COME ON.

How is it that the most basic form of communication on the internet is now "too hard" as far as that age group is concerned? It’s a mystery to be sure.

The over-25 crowd on the other hand usually has absolutely no issue with email whatsoever. It is nothing short of odd why this is, but it’s true in my experience.

I do understand that email is not "cool". I do understand that other than for registration and notification purposes it has little to no tie-ins with social networking. I do understand it is a closed type of messaging system as it should be.

And maybe those are the reasons why those under 25 hate it so much. Maybe that age group simply isn’t accustomed to the fact that traditional email is supposed to be independent of web sites by nature. Who can say for sure.

What’s your experience?

Are you over 25? Have you found that trying to get email communication from an under-25′er is like trying to draw blood from a stone?

And you under 25? Do you use email at all? Do you like or not like it? I’d especially like to hear from the under-25 crowd that doesn’t like it because I really want to know why you find it so annoying to use. Truly.

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http://www.mikeslife.org Mike CJ
Interesting Rich, and not something that had dawned on me until I read your post, but you’re absolutely right. I’m well north of 25 and like you, I just can’t be bothered with (and rarely check) the internal messaging systems in the many sites I’m part of. I would be happy to condense my whole web communication experience into either Email or Twitter. Even as a guy I can manage two things at once!

http://www.menga.net Rich Menga
I find Twitter decent as long as I’m using a client like Twhirl. In fact I hated Twitter until I found a client I liked because otherwise it was too “tied” to the browser for me. Were it not for a Twitter client, I wouldn’t use it at all.

Matt
I’m under 25, and I almost never use anything OTHER than my gmail account for communication. I guess it’s because I’m not big on social networking sites. I’m on facebook about once a week, but I rarely message on it because it’s annoying to get the notification email then have to log in to facebook just to reply. Maybe people that prefer to use youtube, facebook, myspace, etc like to keep their communications separate? I don’t get it, but that’s all I can think of.
SupaChalupa
I am under 25 Rich, sorry I cant answer your question. I only use Email. I absolutely never use a websites messenger service, that to ms is annoying because I always log into my Email, but I don’t always log into the web sites I use. Email FTW!

http://www.menga.net Rich Menga
You are a fine example for others in your peer group. Go tell them to get off Facebook please. Say that I sent you.

Teresa VGarrett
I am over 25 and I cannot communicate at all with most people under 25. If I request that any information be emailed to me, I almost always have to go back to the person that I made the request to and physically retrieve the info. That includes my 18 year old daughter that still lives at home. The web is a wonderful thing if it is used properly but not everyone uses the web to full advantage.

http://www.menga.net Rich Menga
Suggestion: Tell her to use the SMS email address on her cell phone and watch how agreeable she will be because a huge chunk of the under-25 club lives and dies by cell phones.
A list of all the SMS addresses per provider are here http://freesms.1888usa.com/
For Tracfone you can hunt down the provider here http://freesms.1888usa.com/revcell.htm
Best of luck.

Doug
I’ve worked with a number of Youth Pastors and all have indicated that email does not reach this segment. Most youth communicate through text messages, IM, Facebook, etc. It has been this way for a couple of years now.
http://www.darrensingleton.com Darren Singleton
I’m coming up for 23 at the moment and from being around 16 years old have performed majority of my online communications via email. Some of this is shifting towards Facebook, but that is only because the friends I keep in touch with prefer that system over email itself.
I even find that when using Twitter, I will be requested to send people emails with further information – but this is generally down to the 140 character limit imposed.
I think email, especially now with GMail, is such a simple system to use and although it is generally used as part of the Google Mail website, the people you are communicating with can be doing so from hundreds if not thousands of different systems from around the net.
Just to summarize – I’m a soon-to-be 23 year old male who prefers email over any other online communication method!
Bryan Gulley
I have found that a lot of this has to do with having a job that uses e-mail. When you think about it most people under 25 are waiters, in retail, or work at fast food joints. No need for e-mail. There surfing habits are youtube, twitter, facebook, ect. People under 25 are in some sort of school or they are working in the service industry. Again no need for e-mail.
Once you graduate from college and get into a more office environment presto you are versed in outlook. You have a work e-mail account. You may not have gmail, or hotmail, but you have at least been exposed to independant e-mail and you start using it.
This is my theory anyway. It might be a good study to conduct.

http://www.menga.net Rich Menga
Business use is a strong factor on whether people in general will or won’t use email. It is a strong truth that business absolutely cannot run on social networking and/or IM because an independent messaging system (email) must be present for proper text-based communication.
It’s almost as if email is what you “mature” to after you reach a certain age. And yes, the subject is definitely worth a study or two.

SupaChalupa
I am not a fan of Gmail. I prefer good old Hotmail, not saying its better (I like hotmail’s user interface better) but that is just my personal preference. I honestly don’t see Gmail as any easier to use than any other web-based mail client.
lespaul20
I agree that a Job has a lot to do with it. It’s definitely not a generational thing per se, but rather a raw age thing. College students, for example, probably use email for group projects and school related things rather than facebook. I don’t think it’s really an age think but more of a task/situation thing.
Zach
I’m in High School, and use Email heavily.
I’m in an extra-curricular activity called Science Olympiad, and since we are all techies we use email to communicate within the team.
I don’t just use it for that either. For me its useful just for general conversation, and sending files back and forth between people.