I have this nagging doubt that e-mail is what old people use to communicate. Young people today think about e-mail how I thought about telex and fax back in the eighties.

If today I could be miraculously 20 years younger  I am sure I would be using Instant Messaging more than e-mail.

I just cant seem to break the e-mail habit. Part of the problem is I need other people to be on the same wavelength.

I work with Chris my web developer and nearly all our conversations happen over the phone (not even Skype or Google talk). We are both tech savvy smart guys of the same age (37) but still we cant communicate how our younger selves would.

I was recently working with a new client and everyone in the business was under 25, guess what? they all used Instant Messaging.

Instant messaging isn’t new, it came after e-mail for sure, but for me there must be a generational blockage, either that or I am just unsociable.

Anyway apart from exposing my own failings in this department this post is just a reminder that there are better ways of using the Internet for communication.

I think I will buy Chris a Skype phone for Christmas.

I have linked to this before and hate repeating myself but to see how a young modern company approaches communication have a read at Software Developers Automattic’s How we work page.

Link: http://automattic.com/about/how-we-work/

We coordinate about 95% of our projects on a private IRC channel, which is archived and searchable, 4% via email, and the rest on direct IM, usually AIM and Skype.

IRC is just an older version of instant messaging and chat.

If you have any pearls of wisdom on this topic please use the comments to share.

To help define irony Chris called me during the writing of this post to talk about a project. At least he now knows what he is getting for Christmas.