Friday, April 03, 2009

Is Twitter the death of Email?

I am worried. For the last fifteen years the literate classes have swapped billet douxes via email. This quick - but intimate - communication method has been central to most writers' practice. Yet, over the last week, the last month even I have found my personal inbox empty. Those carefully crafted, and so individuallly personalised emails that I used to crave and love have disappeared, apparently overnight.

I used to so look forward to that long, rambling, non-spellchecked piece of a writers' heart, and yet now, I wonder if I will ever hear it's beat again. It is Twitter that is to blame with its Puritan 140 characters, and its annoyingly utilitarian interface.

We need to act now, or else email, that wonderfully florid and unmediated platform is no longer relevant - it has, in a nutshell, disappeared for good.

1 comment:

Jim Murdoch said...

The damage has already been done with text messaging. This is just a variation of that that the grownups have decided to have a play with but I expect most of them will lose interest in time. I haven't joined nor do I have any intention of joining. My wife did just to satisfy her curiosity but we both agree that it's not for us. I still find Facebook hard to get to grips with but I've made a couple of connections through the groups so I tolerate it but once a week is about it for me.