The word rose, no matter how it's spelled, does not smell.

Although inconsistent in how they're spelling it (text-messaging vs text messaging and eMail vs  e-mail), the messages from all three are the same.

USA Today reports:
Text-messaging replacing eMail among youth
In the era of instant gratification, students and recent graduates are used to being plugged in 24/7, and view eMail as a slower, less convenient means of communication...

Associated Press reports:
'E-mail has become the new snail mail' as younger set goes with text messaging

Mercury News reports:
SITES LIKE MYSPACE OFFERING `INSTANT' SOCIAL SCENE, FAST MESSAGING ATTRACT YOUNG USERS, STUDY SHOWS

CHICAGO -- E-mail is so last millennium. Young people see it as a good way to reach an elder - a parent, teacher or a boss - or to receive an attached file. But increasingly, the former darling of high-tech communication is losing favor to instant and text messaging, and to the chatter generated on blogs and social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace. 

Email is FORMAL correspondence?

That said, no one is predicting the death of e-mail. Besides its usefulness in formal correspondence, it also offers the ability to send something from "one to many," says Anne Kirah, a senior design anthropologist at Microsoft who studies people's high-tech habits. That might include an announcement for a club or invitation to a party. 

Many college students are logged on 24/7 and the shift is starting to creep into workplace communication, too.

Chintan Talati, who is 28, often uses instant message with other younger peers at his work, a California-based Web site that provides automotive information to consumers. He prefers IM over e-mail. "It's a way to get a quicker answer," he says.

And how do we help students make transitions to college and the world of work?:
 

"Nine to 5 has been replaced with 'Give me a deadline and I will meet your deadline,"' Kirah says of young people's work habits. "They're saying 'I might work until 2 a.m. that night. But I will do it all on my terms."'