The

The coming death of mail as we know it -- no, no, not that mail; the other one:

Signs you're an old fogey: You still watch movies on a VCR, listen to vinyl records and shoot photos on film.

And you enjoy using e-mail.

Young people, of course, much prefer online chats and text messages. These have been on the rise for years but are now threatening to eclipse e-mail, much as they have already superseded phone calls.

Major Internet companies like Facebook are responding with message services that are focused on immediate gratification.

The problem with e-mail, young people say, is that it involves a boringly long process of signing into an account, typing out a subject line and then sending a message that might not be received or answered for hours. And sign-offs like “sincerely” — seriously?

Lena Jenny, 17, a high school senior in Cupertino, Calif., said texting was so quick that “I sometimes have an answer before I even shut my phone.” E-mail, she added, is “so lame.”

Yeah, it's so lame to have to wait, oh, for minutes and minutes to get an answer to e-mail, and filling out those subject lines just takes forever. I have to admit, though, that I'm surprised at how fast the smart phone became a must-carry item for me. It's life-changing to be able to carry around a tiny computer in your pocket. I'm even getting pretty good at two-thumb texting.