'EMAIL COULD BE EXTINCT WITHIN A DECADE'

With more and more teenagers switching to instant messaging and social networking sites for speedy communication, email could be extinct within a decade, says a new report.

The electronic form of contact is losing its charm as millions of teenagers ditch it as their main form of communication, said the study by social anthropologist from the University of Kent.

Although inboxes are still filling up daily all over the world, experts believe emails are dying out because they are too slow, too inconvenient and simply not fashionable any more.

The study commissioned by broadband provider TalkTalk found only 51 per cent of Britons in their teens or early twenties say email is their first choice of communication, The Daily Mail reported.

Email took 20 years to develop into the phenomenon it is now, but could take just half as long to die out again, said report author Professor David Zeitlyn.

Experts reckons people prefer the 'one and done' style of message, which is where a short message like those on Twitter, can be sent to all contacts at the same time.

Other email alternatives, such as instant messaging, texting and social networks like Facebook, are quick and easy and can be done anywhere with modern technology.

The researchers found email has already become 'grey mail' with the most devoted users being pensioners, followed by middle-aged Britons.

It does not mean email is completely abandoned as 86 per cent of 15-24 year-olds do send out messages this way, it's just they use other methods more often, they say.

One of the reasons was that alternatives, like Facebook and Twitter, allow them to send out one message which goes to all their friends at once, saving them time on mailing or texting.

Older generations are however more reliant on email, with 98 per cent of those aged 65 or over using it regularly and 96 per cent of those aged 45-64, said the TalkTalk research.

As users get younger, email becomes less popular with 87 per cent of 25-34-year-olds using it.

'Email has been the dominant mode of communication over the internet for the past 20 years, but that doesn't mean it always will be,' Mark Schmid from TalkTalk said.

'Increasingly people want to send quick, short messages reaching many people in one go, and there are now better ways of doing that than via email.

'Based on the trends we're seeing now, email could well be on its last legs by the end of the next decade.'