It's been said before that kids don't really use email - and based on my daughter's use of the net, it seems to be true. IM, various websites that have discussion forums, yes. Email though? That's for talking with adults.

I was talking about this with someone the other day, and he made a point that should have been obvious to me, but wasn't: email died when spam overwhelmed it. Think about it - to read email from a friend, you have to wade through dozens of pieces of unwanted crap. IM them though, and it's direct with no interference. Heck, with newer clients, you can queue up messages, too.

Another reinforcing item: I have friends who work in secure parts of the US government, and they have closed email systems. And you know what? Email works for them. Spammers really did force people to find a way out, and IM has been one of the primary answers. Systems like Twitter, Jaiku, and Pownce? They serve the same purpose. I suspect that a better email system that didn't suffer from spam overload would have obviated the need for a lot of those.

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