Email : Losing out to TXT and IM?

Slate this week included a catchy piece that asks if those of us who remember how cutting-edge and cute Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan were in 1998's "You've Got Mail," will abandon email for more popular texting and IM of our children's generation. The rise of Facebook and Myspace, combined with texting (wildly popular in Asia while the U.S. was still spell-checking Yahoo outbox missives) has a few techies wondering if email will die. For social interaction, the answer is yes -- at least as we know email today. For business, hell no. Here's why. Staying current with the ebb and flow of your buddies' movements and their free time requires 24/7 connectivity. Voice, text, IM. It's an A.D.D. sort of world - quick exchanges with little or no punctuation: what up? r u going? ttyl. For 9-5 office mates, it's email and structure. The line between "knowing now" and "checking email" is a firewall that divides our personal lives from our professional lives. The line blurs when your google email forwards to your mobile, but I've been in offices where 90% of employees under 30 juggle IM dialog boxes, emoticons and trusty but dry Microsoft Outlook. It's second nature. They move back and forth between fun and duty. Email outside of work? Only when they have to send resumes if the employer won't accept video resumes posted on You Tube.