So I admit, it's been a while since I last posted! I said in a previous post that I would get better and clearly I have not.
This months topic is based on a question I received today during a presentation I helped deliver at the 2011 Teaching Conference at IPFW. The basics of the question surrounded student usage of email (or lack there of) and are we enabling them to create bad habits now by our willingness to utilize social media to reach out and connect with them?
That's really a great question and one that has come up before. In a great article on Discovery News http://news.discovery.com/tech/is-e-mail-dead.html the question is asked "Is Email Dead?" According to the article, people just aren't utilizing email as much (especially younger people) to communicate. Other social media outlets and text messaging offer a much quicker mode of communication and is more readily utilized by teens. That's not to say they don't use email, because they do. They just don't use it as much as other services.
Of course we realize that emailing in a business setting is not going away anytime soon, but there have already been some changes in the way professionals communicate at work. I'll give you a few examples:
How much do you want to bet that when email first came out, people thought we would never get rid of our face-to-face interactions and opt for the less personal written communication? Now, both are regularly utilized as acceptable forms of business etiquette. I'm sure there were some who thought email would just be a flash in the pan.
When IM came along, many companies began using that to communicate quickly internally. No need to wait for an email and then a response and then a response to the response...the whole conversation happened in real time.
In LinkedIn and Facebook, those who may never have met you or had access to your email address can now reach out to you and send you a message. If we were only using email, you might miss out on connections!
I read on Twitter that one company sent a text message to offer a candidate a position with their company...and the candidate accepted via text message. Without a single email, both the company and the candidate knew instantly if the person would be joining their team.
The truth is, emailing will probably not go by the way side, at least not yet any way,but the reality is there are a variety of other ways we can communicate with each other. Young people know this already, sometimes the rest of us just have to catch up.
So when the question is posed, are we letting young people get away with not acting professionally by ignoring their emails, because we're trying to reach them through Facebook, LinkedIn, Texting, or other avenues? The answer is yes and no. I think there is a balance here that we can strike between giving in and not budging.
Here's what I recommend...Continue to reiterate to young people that the main form of expected professional communication continues to be email. If they cannot learn to respond in a timely manner or they don't check it, then they might just be missing opportunities. There are always consequences for bad behavior and not checking or responding to email will have a downside. On the other hand though, don't be afraid to try some of the new forms of communication that are out there. Facebook, texting, and other more instant forms of communication can actually be very beneficial to you and young people.
In the end, we all know, email will not be going away for now, so eventually students will have to use it. For now though, maybe it's better that they at least hear your message, regardless of which communication tool it comes through.
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