rav these days, esp the fact that 90% of my family and friends have iphones/androids/blackberrys(that push emails every 5 mins)- its effectively instant. i do all of my social group conversation through email- for obvious reasons, its easy to reply to everyone back and have the whole conversation ongoing.. and because of that and the fact i send up to 100 emails a day for work. means i and most of my collegues and friends(in the same sort of fields) use email as the main media for conversation.. and many that dont utilise email as much- for example my gf.. she does all her stuff on facebook- thats where she chats to her mates , thats where she posts her pics, thats where she arranges nights out etc.. i understand not everyone is like this- but its only a matter of time.