I've found that as I started corresponding more in the "real world," email took hold as the most important tool I have. When I was a student, less so, because all I used it for was holding passwords, subscribing to a list or two, and occasionally communicating with a teacher. All my friends were always nearby so it wasn't a major issue to just hang out all the time.
But since then, everyone I know has moved somewhere else. If you want to seek out a deep long-term conversation and you can't get in physical proximity to do so, email does that quite well.
I think mailing lists are a powerful tool as well - they should probably be used more. I hate using Facebook, even though it's valuable as a Rolodex replacement.
> as I started corresponding more in the "real world," email took hold as the most important tool I have.
Same.
The one major benefit (I found) of email is that the other person has no way of finding out when / if your online.
"current generation" heh. I guess I'm old now. 29. But I communicate with my younger employees via email, and that seems to work fine.
the amusing thing is that I use email for everything; most of my activity on twitter, facebook, linkedin, etc... is business related. But then, I'm not a professional.
But I definitely use it to talk to members of the older generation. And anything that's less than personal, in fact. Any sort of business arrangements, anything that's supposed to look professional.
In fact, the lack of time constraints on email make it far superior to most newer technologies for anything that requires some thought. Email gives you a chance to (re)consider your argument, idea, or response. And to spellcheck.
(Irony: Firefox spellchecker picked up "spellcheck" as incorrect. More irony: "spellchecker" is fine.)