A great review, published in Fast Company, in June, tells us about the end of the Email. Sheryl Sandberg (Facebook COO) spoke about the fact that only 11% of teenagers use Email as a communication tool. She said "If you want to know what people like us will do tomorrow, you look at what teenagers are doing today…" Which I do agree…

Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg’s Conference

But, on the other hand, the use of Text Messages (SMS) and social networks increases every day, and I personally blame Smartphone's, not just teenagers.

As we all can agree, never in the history of brand communication have companies had so many tools to interact with the consumers and vice versa. The “Fan Pages” and the “Profiles” on social networking sites generate so much buzz to engage consumers to be slanderous or protective of a brand. And in this case, yes, I agree that the Email is becoming extinct.

However I do not think that Sheryl Sandberg’s prophecies are completely pertinent, at least to my country of Brazil. Here, I believe that the Email will continue to exist for a good time. This is due in part because today, many companies still forbid the use of social networks in a work environment. Therefore access is limited to personal smartphones. In Brazil we have a huge social inequality and most people cannot afford smartphones. In numbers, 82% of the 185 million* cell-phones in Brazil are pre-paid and they don’t have the smartphone technology.

Moreover, if you analyze what the Email has become, it is our default communication choice when we need to be a little more “formal”. In an increasingly informal, social network-led world, e-mail becomes a formal tool we use to document our actions in our jobs, while the social networks and the SMS are very personal and informal. I believe that we will always need the formality of the Email.