The use of email is apparently on a decline, according to figures quoted in a New York Times report. The total number of unique visitors from the United States to major email providers like Yahoo and Hotmail has been on a steady downhill slope, with the visits from 12 to 17 year olds dropping most sharply, at 18 percent.

The consensus among experts is that the numbers do not actually reflect a drop in digital communication. Rather, people are gravitating toward other digital mediums that offer more immediate gratification. This ranges from the use of instant messaging and texting, to communicating via popular social networks such as Facebook and Twitter--social media tools especially popular among youngsters and young adults.

As the year draws to a close, the changing face of digital correspondence might be a trend that the savvy CIO will want to take note of. Senior executives today are generally concerned with messaging solutions that are concerned with the archival and protection of emails. The question though, is whether managing email alone is adequate, a few years down the road.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at New York Times
- check out this article at New York Times Blog

Related Articles:
Collaborative federal system could provide alternatives for gov 2.0 archiving
Nielsen: Email use drops 28 percent in one year
Email remains a major vector of enterprise data loss