Why Email and Phones Still Rule

Adam Engst on why email rules:

"It all comes down to two simple facts: email is based on open standards, and it's the lowest common denominator for Internet communication. Any communication system that wishes to supplant email will need to offer both openness and ubiquity, and nothing available today comes even close."

Gina Trapani says there's a time when shutting down email makes sense:

"If you're looking for a quick answer to a question, a phone call (when the person on the other end picks up) yields an immediate response, but an email could languish unread in ten inboxes. When an exchange involves several back-and-forths, days' worth of email could be avoided with a five-minute call."

Twitter and Facebook might be how many of us communicate these are good reminders that two old stalwarts - email and the phone - are not going away.

Comments

[Chris Grayson]

I concur.(here because Miles Nadal of MDC Partners gave this link a Tweet.)

[mattquint]

I think e-mail and phone calls are also the places we are hardwired to expect personal communications, and thus they offer greater instincts and social expectations to provide a response (thought both can sometimes take a while).Many social networking platforms face a trade-off. They usually allow users to avoid push, which lowers barriers to sign-on, but with our busy lives and multiple platforms it becomes harder and harder to pull us in--sometimes even when we are pretty passionate about the network or its topical focus and would like to be part of new conversations taking place there.It will be interesting to see what happens as the workforce becomes filled with generations of people who grew up with new social networking rituals.

[Laura Kinoshita (@lkinoshita)]

Relationships are built in person, and next best thing is phone, or vid conferencing, I guess. Universities need to stress value of getting up from desk and having a real conversation, from time to time.

[podcast_review]

how does posterous fit in with traditional blogging?

[Brad]

Steve,One thing that will be hard for any technology to duplicate is one's ability to judge the tone and inflection of the human voice during a phone call or even better, a face-to-face meeting. Humor and goodwill is sometimes lost in the written word, and there is no better way to solve any problem or assess any situation than through a good, old-fashioned phone call. Great post and thanks for the insight!Brad

[Albert Maruggi]

You'll love this one. I'm co-moderating a panel of journalists on #journchat and the discussion gets to Twitter and how to pitch. One of the reporters laments about how he gets such lame pitches and his in box is full. He claims to like Twitter better, I ask so you like to get pitched on Twitter in the open or as a DM. DM he says. I ask how does he get notified of Twitter DMs, he says "Email" This draws a blank stare from me, and I remembered what my mother used to say, "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything." Thanks mom. Next question for the panel was my reply.

[Johan Horak]

Email and phones rule. If you want to use social tools and it exclude these ways to access, update, read then you may waste your time.

[Leighton Cooke]

This is the great thing about Posterous. Email lets you connect to all your social media with one post. Getting a response is, of course, another dimension.

[Roger Diercks]

Anyone who thinks e-mail is dead just needs to monitor Twitter during a Gmail outage.

[Joe Buhler]

Agree on email and phone, provided 90% plus wouldn't end up in voicemail!

[Chris Pearson]

Phone and e-mail really are the first lines of direct communication when you need them, and certainly the most effective . Others, inc social networks-well 'the medium is the message' as Mr McLuhan once said.

[Scott Magdalein]

Agree.

[r4i]

Very interesting... One point I would like to put is that e-mails can be very handy for official communication.... No other can do it that properly. keep posting. Will be visiting back soon.