While the author would like us to think that the next generation heralds the end of e-mail, the prognosis is nowhere near that dire. Indeed, the author writes, "And no matter what dominates in the dorm room, e-mail still rules in the workplace." You bet it does. The reason why is obvious: Emails can be printed easily and be turned into records. The need for records will not change. And so these budding texters will all have some adjusting in store for them once they get real jobs.

Texting has an immediacy and informality that best suits those who emphasize social interaction. That will always describe teenagers and socialites. The business/job world simply has no use for this. And thus, rather than email going obsolete, we will simply have two styles of communication that suit different audiences, with email being the clear choice for the vast majority.

While I agree with the premise that e-mail dominates the workplace, I think instant messaging has a chance to catch on there, too. I'm lucky enough that most communications in my current job are IM rather than e-mail (I get almost no e-mail from coworkers and I very rarely get more than one e-mail a day). I work for a relatively small company, so I don't know if how we do things would necessarily scale to a larger company. But, having worked at larger companies where almost all communication was done via e-mail and IM was prohibited, I don't see that IM would necessarily hurt. E-mail, in my experience, tends to slow things down and that's not always good. It's much easier to react to a 'put out this fire' IM than it is to respond to a 'put out this fire' e-mail (with your boss and your boss's boss CC'd).

Also, IMs can be logged, too. My IM client logs all conversations and chats automatically. And since about as many people encrypt IMs as encrypt e-mails (almost no one), they could be logged by a third party if necessary.

I don't think e-mail will be obsoleted by IM. Both have their purpose and if used wisely can enhance communication.

It depends on what sort of job you have but, for the most part, I don't see IM ever dominating work environments. IM is good for exactly that--quick questions and instructions on an ultra-timely basis. But that doesn't describe most people's normal work days. And workers waste huge amounts of time checking their email every couple minutes but IM would make that even worse because then there'd be an even greater expectation to respond quickly. It creates an rush-rush environment where everybody seems really busy but not a lot of important stuff gets done.