I'm old enough to remember when this was exactly how email was used. (but using a normal email client).
It was acceptable to send one-word email replies, and there were email chains of hundreds of emails (I was the guy who tended to "snip" them after 20 or replies).
Now email seems to have taken over from where snail mail was: bills, newsletters, and formal communication. Chat is now the norm.
Though I do notice a generational divide: one of my co-founders is in his 60's, and will phone randomly (which is now considered rude), another is a bit younger and prefers email to messaging, but will message to ask if it's OK to call. My younger colleagues send formal email replies, and use Whatsapp/Keybase for all other communication. I vetoed using Slack in the organisation completely ;)
I wonder if in another 30 years, chat apps will be the formal channel, and something else will have taken over for just chatting.
Yep: Direct thought transfer protocol, and people will just assume, that you are OK with them dumping their brain load full of irrelevancies and distractions into yours, unable to form a coherent thought and making an appointment, "because everyone is on TTP" (they wont know what TTP stands for though), so you are supposed to be too! And we will be "outdated", for using chat applications. "It's soooo slow!"
It was acceptable to send one-word email replies, and there were email chains of hundreds of emails (I was the guy who tended to "snip" them after 20 or replies).
Now email seems to have taken over from where snail mail was: bills, newsletters, and formal communication. Chat is now the norm.
Though I do notice a generational divide: one of my co-founders is in his 60's, and will phone randomly (which is now considered rude), another is a bit younger and prefers email to messaging, but will message to ask if it's OK to call. My younger colleagues send formal email replies, and use Whatsapp/Keybase for all other communication. I vetoed using Slack in the organisation completely ;)
I wonder if in another 30 years, chat apps will be the formal channel, and something else will have taken over for just chatting.