Despite an increasing number of companies adopting high-tech anti-spam measures, and the government’s CAN-SPAM act, spam remains on the rise.

I think it’s hardly any coincidence that the same time span has seen an increase in worldwide internet use which has now reached 1.24 billion users.

Whether we’re talking on- or offline it’s like “Paper Collar Joe” Bessimer said, “there’s a sucker born every minute… and two to take ‘em”. In other words, even the most technologically savvy anti-spam service is only as good as its customers.

If you’ve been a net user for any significant period of time you know it’s become something of a year-end tradition to predict the death of email. Why, just four years ago PC Magazine — which just announced that spam has reached unprecedented heights — was predicting the impending death of email.

Now it’s Slate Magazine’s turn to claim that email is about to become obsolete thanks to the younger generation’s preference for IMs and SMS or even Web 2.0 applications like Twitter and Utterz.

Email, its wannabe mourners say, is for old people. It’s not cool. It will soon will exist only in the memories of the middle-aged and a handful of email archiving servers.

Then again, the folks about whom they’re writing — mostly teens and early 20-somethings — have yet to be inducted into Corporate America. There they’ll quickly find that employers are banning cell phone use on the job, leaving people who rely on SMS for communication high and dry. Likewise, IMs require software installation, and most employers have policies prohibiting users from installing such programs (although there are ways around them).

So what does that leave us with?

You guessed it: email. It’s everywhere, accessible in many cases from everywhere, and everyone has it.

And, as long as there is email there will be spam. So if spam’s on the rise it’s because email use is on the rise.

So let the folks at Slate and PC Magazine claim that email is obsolete if they want. I’ll believe they mean it when they no longer offer the “email this” button at the bottom of their articles. Until then, I say the rumors of its demise are greatly exaggerated.

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