Oh, what the difference of a few months makes. Or, rather, perhaps its just the pull of a web magazine, like Slate. Most recently, Slate has come up with an article heralding the death of email, in the face of a generational shift in communication methods.

Translation: kidz luv IM.

And texting.

And yes, there’s a lot to be said about what the medium means, irrespective of the message.

Which is funny, however, given how this past June Fred Wilson was raked over the coals for talking about how it was easier for digital natives to see and take advantage for the future. I think a lot of bloggers were particularly sensitive over the post, and while yes, age doesn’t matter, in a very real difference, age *does* matter.

(which I discussed over here about 6 months ago as well).

There’s a generation of individuals that are using technology in a way that is completely foreign — even to folks who are “only” 5-10 years their senior. And there’s *another* digital generation that are 5-10 years *their* junior who are facile at using another kind of technology that teenagers aren’t quite as ‘hip’ to — virtual worlds a la Club Penguin.

I could also make hand-waving arguments about how these kinds of interactions might _also_ actually have profound effects on brain development, in the way that both generations interact in their interpersonal relationships, and in so doing, provide a vague (but possibly substantial) argument that there is a real organic impact on these folks.

Which makes, in a round about way, Fred Wilson right: there is a generation of people for whom email is a bit of a relic.  Some older folks have made a similar leap, but by and large its a generational *thing* (see Mat Ingram’s interactions with his own kids), that will allow some of them, by and large to see things that other generations won’t.

So I’ve had a few days to mull over Pownce.  And you can add my review to the giant stack of reviews you’ve probably read, some of which have been positive and others not so much.  Mine you can add to the “not so much” pile.

So, what is Pownce?

Pownce is an web-based instant messaging system that can be used ex-browser if you download the Adobe Integrated Runtime.  Oh.  Its wrapped up in a pretty slick package, and you can send group messages.   That’s pretty much it.

It shouldn’t be confused with services like Twitter, which are really continuous partial attention services, or something that I’ve described as ambient broadcasting.

The reason is because unlike Twitter, or even the “status” system that’s available through Facebook, there is yet to be an easy way to update your status, or send messages (about your status) through a mobile device.  You can only message when you’re attached to the ‘net through a PC.  This difference cannot be understated because it means that when you’re at an event — literally, an event — you can broadcast information live to your friends.  You can tell them where you are, what you’re doing, what you’re thinking, and where you want to meet.  Twitter, after all, exploded after SXSW, where people were Twittering away about where they were during the festival — and in a peculiar voyeuristic way, you could almost “be” there too if you were observing the tweets.

The other, smaller, difference is that there is no character limit to the messages.  Twitter, for example, has a 140 character limit.  You might not think this is such a big thing (pun not intended), but in fact, limiting the number of characters *forces* you to create terse and important messages.  It also meshes nicely with being able to, in fact, create messages, *anywhere* you are, as mobile Twittering (or now, Twittergramming) is possible.

Both of these limitations make Pownce merely, for the most part, a fancy web based instant messaging system.  And if you think of it that way, its one that’s crippled in one vital respect, in that its not able to integrate with other instant messaging networks.

Sure, it might be so slick it might get you to change your mind about which instant messaging system you might use.  But why should you stick with *one* instant messaging system when you can plug into *all* of them at once?  That way you don’t need to port over your entire network, which is really the killer *anything* of any networked application.

Heck, that’s almost like the *other* fancy web-based instant messaging system that I *already* use.  Maybe you’ve heard of it?  Its called Meebo, and it works pretty damn well.

Now, in all fairness Pownce will probably continue to evolve beyond just being able to doing what it is just doing.  It could add a mobile component, and that would dramatically change things.  It could also add the “plug into all networks” thing, as well.

But will it?  Or will it go in another direction entirely?  Time, as they say, will tell.