Yikes! If you haven’t noticed, downloads and instant messaging (IM) are replacing CD’s and email. This is kind of alarming to me as I still buy CD’s and use email! Martha Irvine writes that young people keep email, a last century technology, so that they can reach out to their elders – parents, teachers, and bosses. That, and sending file attachments. To a generation raised in a world of instant gratification, email is this century’s snail mail. And like the old mail boxes in front of our homes, the email inboxes are increasingly receptacles for junk mail. Besides spammers, it’s mainly parents and authority figures that use email.
Email is being replaced by more immediate forms of communication – instant messaging, texting and cell phones. Among friends, whether it is a casual conversation or something more heart to heart, the intense immediacy of these mediums is preferred. Sites like Facebook are used to create a virtual gathering place for conversing and keeping up with a select circle of friends. And Apple Computer’s iMac’s and MacBook Pro’s enable free video conferencing, a significant step beyond IM.
While corporate IT departments scramble to perfect the systems for handling email, these new technologies are emerging to replace it. Thought needs to be given now to implementing IM as well as RSS. JupiterResearch estimates that “63% of large companies will have syndicated content via RSS by 2007.” RSS is not yet well understood or utilized, but you can begin to see the shift. As mobile technologies improve, SMS, (the most commonly known form is texting), will also increase. In some parts of the world, texting eclipses email as the preferred way of communicating.
I don’t know what all the fall out from these new ways of communicating will be, but I like the sense of immediacy and directness they provide. Spammers and advertisers will probably find their way into this loop eventually. But for now, if you want to interact with a younger generation and need to create an organizational communication system that is effective, you will have to immerse yourself in these new technologies. These technologies also signal a profound shift in how learning occurs with peer to peer learning replacing education coming down from above.
There are major implications to be considered in how business leaders lead, communicate and organize. The same can be said for education, media, and churches.
