Seems that now everyone I know has either a Twitter account or a Facebook account (or both) along with MSN, AIM and Google Talk, no-one ever sends me email. I've spent many, many hours making sure I have a working email set up that syncs over a desktop PC, a laptop and a mobile phone, and it all works now. But people insist on sending me Twitter direct messsages, Facebook wall posts or instant messenger alerts instead of typing up a proper email.
Thing is, instant messaging and Twitter are both very "immediate" - if I don't reply there and then, chances are the message will be lost or go unnoticed. Messages on Facebook only ever get seen when I log in to Facebook. The thing I have always loved about email is that I can read it when I want to, where I want to, mark it as needing attention later on, copy it, forward it, print it, etc. Many of these things I can't do with any of the "new" methods.
I guess I understand a little of how other people felt when email started to take over from hand written letters. I just hope that things will settle down with all these different ways of talking and we can all get back to using one thing that works for everyone.
Like email.
