Will IM ever replace e-mail?

[gusmahler]

Some articles (such as this one) suggest that many users are using Facebook/myspace type communities instead of email. I know that is true of my son, (sophmore in college), who doesn't even bother giving out his email address or respond to emails--he communicates to his friends via Myspace/facebook.

The original thought was that, as those high schoolers and college students graduate and enter the "adult" world, they'll stop using "adolescent" communications mediums (IM, facebook) and start using the accepted standard of e-mail.

But this article and others I've read recently suggest that email is due to be replaced as a communications medium, even in the business environment.

Maybe I'm just in the wrong industry, but I certainly don't see it happening now. I don't know of a single co-worker in any of my last 3 jobs who used IM for business purposes. They all use e-mail. (In fact, none of my friends use IM for social purposes, either. Yet everyone I know has an email address.) The Tom's Hardware article suggests that some questions don't warrant the tediousness of writing an e-mail. I have no idea what the author means. To compose an e-mail, I open Outlook (which is always opened, but sometimes minimized) and click on the New button. To compose an IM, I open my IM client, click New and begin writing. What is the difference?

What are the advantages of IM over email? And will those advantages be enough to supplant the ubiquitousness of e-mail?