Will social networks like Facebook mean the end for email?

So what happens to "me@somewhere.com"???

All the features of your email program will be made available on your social network.  The result will mean less use of email as a communication tool.  With that, the whole addressing scheme of "me@somewhere.com" will become unnessary except for getting people into a social network system (like Facebook) or for communicating between different social networking systems. For example, if Facebook becomes the defacto standard for social networks with most internet users on it, then the "@somewhere.com" used by email won't be needed in the Facebook world, because "@somewhere.com" is Facebook! 

It is likely that each independent social network will adopt the wall-garden approach which has frequently surfaced in the history of the Internet, such as America Online's separate network in the early 90's, through to various chat software programs not working with each other (gone are the days where you had to have Skype, MSN Messenger, Yahoo and ICQ all running at the same time).  Over the long term, who knows which social network will win.  But a casualty is likely to be email, for personal use as it's left behind in favour of communication using social networks.

Thing to watch…

Facebook could easily change the email world if they offer email addresses for all their users.  Right now you have to have a Facebook account to reach other Facebook users.  While Facebook uses this barrier to get more people to subscribe, allowing people to email into Facebook would dramatically increase the shift away from email programs.  Many people keep a Gmail or Hotmail account for email, but spend most of their time on social networks.  It is likely that email will eventually be added as a core feature of social networks.