\n<\/p>\n
The end of text?<\/strong><\/p>\n But will text messaging suffer the same fate as email as other \u201ccooler\u201d ways to communicate come along?<\/p>\n \u201cOne [new] technology brings about other technologies,\u201d says James Ivory, professor of communications at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. \u201cThe adoption curve gets faster and faster.\u201d<\/p>\n In other words, the internet and computers spawned email, which eventually led to texts on smartphones. And smartphones, equipped with high resolution cameras, are already providing ways for those at the cutting-edge to communicate in new ways.<\/p>\n \u201cI think flat \u2018texting\u2019 is already being replaced,\u201d says the University of Buffalo\u2019s Stefanone. \u201cSnap (parent company of Snapchat) enables us to idealise the images we present of ourselves through filters \u2013 look at its growing popularity.\u201d<\/p>\n The number of daily active Snapchat users has grown every quarter since 2014<\/a>, with nearly 200 million users worldwide in the first quarter of 2018. The world of Instagram influencers, YouTube vloggers and reaction GIFs has created a very visual culture of communication. It\u2019s not just a text message \u2013 it\u2019s a selfie, a Boomerang, a sparkly pink unicorn sticker or big bubble text reading \u201clit\u201d or \u201cit me.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAs a professional I have been with students almost 20 years,\u201d Lauricella says. \u201cAnd things have turned more visual. Text (messaging) is pure words \u2013 whereas now if I want to get my daughter\u2019s attention, I send her a Snapchat. Me sending a funny face asking \u2018can you please take out the trash?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n I\u2019m noticing this in my own life. Facebook Messenger notes are starting to pile up, causing me to put off responding and feeling guilty later. Perhaps they\u2019re beginning to remind me too much of email?<\/p>\n But despite all the grief we give it, email does offer something that may be worth salvaging.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are losing one thing as email declines \u2013 and that\u2019s no one really owns email,\u201d says Ivory. \u201cMost of the technology and applications that are competing for replacing email are privately owned by somebody \u2013 there\u2019s a CEO for Snap, there\u2019s a CEO for Facebook. For better or worse, we are losing one of those great public web technologies.\u201d Sure, one could argue that Microsoft owns Hotmail or Google owns Gmail. But the intellectual concept of email isn\u2019t owned by a specific company the way certain apps or forms of texting are. Or that’s how email started, anyway.<\/p>\n It might not be enough to make people fall back in love with email, but if text messaging is similarly overtaken by app-based communication tools, the way we message each other will become ever more constrained by rules set by private companies.<\/p>\n In reality, however, text messages are only likely be doomed if they become tied to work in the way email has.<\/p>\n \u201cAs soon as your boss can text you,\u201d it\u2019s over, Morrison says. It will no longer be fun.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s like trying to throw a cocktail party in your office and wondering why it\u2019s not working.\u201d<\/p>\n —<\/p>\n Bryan Lufkin is BBC Capital\u2019s features writer. Follow him on Twitter @bryan_lufkin<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n To comment on this story or anything else you have seen on BBC Capital, please head over to our<\/em>\u00a0Facebook<\/em><\/a>\u00a0page or message us on <\/em>Twitter<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n If you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc.com features\u00a0<\/em>newsletter<\/em><\/strong><\/a>\u00a0called “If You Only Read 6 Things This Week”. A handpicked selection of stories from BBC Future, Culture, Capital and Travel, delivered to your inbox every Friday.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n