I recently purchased some Moo cards, which are personal identification cards that allow you to use your Flickr photos as design. These cards are useful for networking - when you need something to pass along with your information on it.

I can pass them along to friends, family, or anyone looking for my online identity.

On the back of the cards, I include some relevant URL's:

• http://matthom.com/
• http://matthom.net/
• http://flickr.com/photos/matthom/
• http://twitter.com/Matthom

Without realizing it, it never occurred to me to include the most direct form of communication: my email address. Perhaps this is because lately I've been feeling that email has outlived it's usefulness.

I don't want people to email me - in fact, the less shared emails I get, the better. If I can whittle down the people or services that email me, I can eventually avoid using email completely. That's my long-term goal.

I don't like to think of this as shutting people out, because some might take offense to this theory of mine - those that email me are probably thinking, "Fine, jerk. I won't include you."

Rather, I like to think of this as a cleansing step in the right direction. Ridding myself of an extraneous nuisance that has served it's time, and should move on.

Kids growing up these days don't even use email - it's all SMS and IM. Blogs, RSS, etc. These are the things that are popular and pushing the envelope of technology and communication.

Pretty soon, email will be for dinosaurs. I intend to get out of that group as soon as possible.