If you’re feeling hip ’cause the kids are keeping in touch with you via e-mail, you might want to tune in to what they’re really thinking….
Many teens say it’s how they talk to “old people,” not each other, researchers found.
“E-mail is not the go-to conversation tool any longer,” said Amanda Lenhart, a senior research specialist with the Pew project, which studies the way the Web affects society.
“What teens are picking up is that in some ways, the e-mail medium is a longer, more involved form of communication. IM is what they use when they talk to friends. It feels to them much more like a conversation.”
About 75 percent of teens with Internet access use IM software, said the study, which was based on a phone survey last fall of 1,100 U.S. children age 12 to 17 and their parents.
By comparison, about 42 percent of online adults use IM, the Pew study said.
The article doesn’t mention that many American kids might prefer IM because it removes them one step further from the need to compose a coherent paragraph. I prefer that explanation to the notion that I am getting old.
In his current chat, Washington Post tech writer Rob Pegoraro took a question from a user about the same thing. It seems the Gen Y kids only use IM, and not e-mail.
Burtonsville, MD: Hi Rob. I took my 12 year-old daughter on a cruise recently where she met and made several friends. I asked her whether she had exchanged e-mail addresses with her new friends and she replied that she couldn’t because her friends all used IM exclusively (which I have not allowed her to use), that nobody used e-mail anymore. I have always been warned away from IM by the Tech media but I don’t want my daughter to be left out of the loop because of my paranoia. What’s the real deal: is e-mail already obsolete among the young?; Will my firewall and anti-virus software provide us with reasonable protection should I re-consider my ban on IM?; Thanks.
Rob Pegoraro: I’m in my mid-30s, so I don’t know if I’m the best source about what kids today are up to 🙂 IM certainly is popular, and some of my friends use it far more than e-mail, but others don’t use it at all. (Some offices ban its use.) Either way, it doesn’t pose any more or less of a security risk than e-mail.
“…it removes them one step further from the need to compose a coherent paragraph.”
How in the world did you come up with that? You either learned in English class or you didn’t. If I’m talking to a family member the email is either going to be coherent or not coherent, and it has nothing what so ever to do with how I’m getting the message to them.
The fact is email is not real time. IMs are.
Why in the world would I want to email someone, and wait 5 minutes (in a best case scenario) for the person to respond to me, when I only have to wait about 5 seconds to know what the person is thinking?
I personally hate email. I hate sending it. I hate checking it… And I REALLY hate the damn SPAM.
You don’t really check IMs – They are just there. And you don’t really get SPAM either. I think the last SPAM (or SPIM) I got was about a year ago (take or give a few months), and even that could be argured to be a chain letter.
The last time I got a clear cut one? YEARS ago…
Using a instant messenger service is just much more efficient. The only (small) drawback is you can’t send it over more then one network (out of the box anyways).
It’s fine to do this kind of thing as a teenager, but I fail to see how the business world will accommodate this style of communication as a replacement for e-mail.
As John said, IM is usually lacking in composure, and I don’t see how composure can be eliminated from industry without throwing it into chaos.
There is plenty of room for improvement in e-mail, but I don’t think IM is a likely successor 🙂 OTOH, chaos might be where industry is heading.
#2, some people can’t function being interrupted every 5 minutes with something that is important to someone else but not to them. Actually, most or all people can’t function their best that way… if they can, it’s because what they’re doing doesn’t really matter.
It’s a bit selfish to think that someone welcomes your interruptions whenever you feel like it. E-mail is a bit more civilized that way, as well as providing a “paper trail” and the ability to include other people in the conversation asynchronously.
If I’m talking to a family member the email is either going to be coherent or not coherent, and it has nothing what so ever to do with how I’m getting the message to them.
The question is: how many people review/revise their emails – before sending them – to ensure correct spelling, grammar, punctuation, etc. versus how many IM’ers don’t bother with any of that – because it would disrupt the “flow” of the “conversation”?
IM is useless for me, because my friends & I aren’t online near-continuosly (I’m 46 – so by definition I “don’t get it”) – and I have family who only check email once a week, or so. 🙂
Don’t forget SMS, those text messages are *hugely* popular with youths these days here in Europe, likely there in the US too.
I say – why care? To communicate is Good, period. Be it email, IM, snail mail, telephone, whatever – if I ever get kids I’d want them to communicate – as often and with as much quality as possible. This would mean not using just one means of communication, but as kids most of us didn’t dwell too much on our communications also, so, where’s the problem… 🙂 Let them talk and learn what’s best for them.
As someone said a few years ago, it’s hip to be square 🙂
I find it interesting that people would give up email in favor of IMs. I do the IM thing, and find it great for actually conversing, but the main problem I have with IM is that it isn’t great for long detailed messages, like if I wanted to explain how my week went…and it’s not a great medium if both members aren’t present. That was why I loved email over the phone…someone could tell me something and I could get to it when I wanted, without having to be dedicated to listening to their message. Telephones interrupt you. Emails you read when you decide it’s time to.
IMs beat the phone, because they free you up to do 20 things at once…you don’t have to really dedicate too much time or attention to an IM conversation…but to say it completely replaces Email? I don’t see it.
I never said anything about email being worthless. Well I did – When you need a responce quickly.
E-Mail is good for one of two things. Sending files (IM services are notorious for being unable to connect and such), and sending large amounts of text.
I clearly IM much more then I email. Ironically enough most of the emails I send stem from a IM.
And as far as not having the time to deal with people IMing you all the time… Then don’t. No one is making you. It’s called being able to think for your self. Either log off, or put up a away message and click the “hide all IM windows”. It really isn’t that hard.
They ought to call it IS… Instant Spam! They brought it in at work because people said it was too hard to check their email (yes a senior person told me that was the actual reason) but a screen pop was going to change all these people into productive and informed workers apparently. There was no way to disable the always on top feature so if you had your head down when you were typing you typed several words into nowhere. A typical pop would be “Does anyone here have the number for …?” information available on several company web pages. You’d get a pop like this every 5-10 minutes. Turning it off could result in you being disciplined. Tried it at home, pretty good for people I knew but got a bot bugging me every 5-10 minutes about porn sites etc. I have since quit using it at home and quit my job!
Often I don’t want to “have a conversation” and if others want to have one with me I have a phone. I answer it when my caller ID proves that it’s someone I know.
I really enjoy “talking” to people.
Personally I LOVE Trillian…..makes it easy to “call the kids” to dinner. I could live on that alone, sans email, if ONLY my old fart friends would let go — get **wild** — and try IMing.
I actually would rather IM (or email) than talk to people…..I can talk to more than ONE person at once…and when I say “I need to go” I go. Unlike the phone.
Jeez, John..I didn’t realize you were so OLD.
Anthony..yes you CAN go on multiple systems with Trillian.
Look, it’s another way to communicate….and this must be what people said about the telephone v.s. the hard mail system….
I find it to be way CHEAPER than long distance calls, and easier to stay in touch without a lot of effort.
http://www.ceruleanstudios.com/
Trillian Basic is freeware. Their website says it best: Trillian is a fully featured, stand-alone, skinnable chat client that supports AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo Messenger, and IRC.
I have gotten absolutely ZERO spam IM’s since I started using it, and it grabbed my contact list, automatically. I think its GREAT.
But that’s me.
Anthony (#9), ignoring people’s messages has a negative effect on some. They think you’re ignoring them, which you are, and sometimes get upset. If the channel of communication wasn’t open at all, this wouldn’t happen. They’d send an e-mail and you’d get to it when you get to it.
If the power goes out or you don’t see the window trying to get your attention and shut down, the message is lost and the other person thinks you logged off without answering what they asked you…
I’m in my late twenties…used computers a lot for about 2/3 of my life, and I have turned it off because of the above problems, among others. I also don’t have a cell phone for the same reason.
Another problem is that you don’t just get questions and conversations via IM. As someone else mentioned, you get a lot of “wassap” type of things which are akin to people who wander around in stores or sitting in movie theatres calling people to tell them where they are and just seemed impressed with the fact that they can get ahold of someone whenever they want to. Pointless and vacuous.
IM is popular because those addicted “have nothing else to do”. Of course, your kids can talk to their friends. Instead of watching TV, they’re sitting around watching their computer screens for contact from someone they left at school a half-hour ago! Is this supposed to be an improvement in their lifestyle?
You can’t IM if you’re outdoors [without a PDA or cell phone or laptop] fishing or hiking, playing baseball or basketball. You can’t IM if you’re reading a good book or, perish the thought — writing!
The IM addiction is just another symptom of a generation that is going to need Waldos to tie their shoes. And rely on politicians/priests to think for them.
>>E-Mail is good for one of two things….and sending large amounts of text.
If by “large amounts”, you mean more than a sentence or two, I agree with you. For messages like “cool!” or “whassup?” or “c u @ 8 2nite”, I guess IM is the cat’s meow.
For any sort of meaningful communication, where coherence and transfer of information is important (not to mention having a paper trail, and being able to organize/ file ingoing and outgoing messages), IM is virtually useless. That’s why most businesses don’t use it, and most who try it, dump it after the first million or so “c u @ 8 2nite” time-wasting messages.
You… Quit… Your… Job… Over… A… Computer… Program?!
…Alrighty then…
There are two fundamental opposites: 1. Business (email) versus Personal (IM)
2. Detailed (email) versus Brief (IM)
In the business world everything needs to be documented, thus email. In the personal world it doesn’t really matter, like a quick phone call.
Again, in the business world, detail is necessary. In a personal conversation, I may or may not need detail (thus Wassup?)
That’s all this is about.
>>In a personal conversation, I may or may not need
>>detail (thus Wassup?)
I contend that any “conversation” that doesn’t need more than “Wassup” is a conversation that doesn’t need to happen in the first place. Kinda like the nimrods who stride into the grocery store with their telemarketer headsets on and then walk around talking Real Loud having conversations like “Hey honey, the frozen peas are on sale for 5 cents off…should I get an extra box?”. Go wild, guy. Just buy the extra frigging box. The Mrs. will think you’re a stud.
Sheesh. Talk about a technological solution in search of a problem that needs solving.
And to imagine that a bunch of kids tethered to their electronic gizmos, sending each other messages like “dude!” and “eff you!”, is somehow improving their “communications skills” boggles the mind.
They’re sitting their working on their “AFK” and “BRB” messages, when they should be out climbing a tree or something. No wonder they go to school and shoot each other with assault rifles.
In reply to Anthony:
No I didn’t quit a job over a computer program. I quit a job at a place that was constantly redesigning itself around appeasing lazy idiots. Another example of what I was talking about was that we had abbreviated dialing within the company, 4 digits within the building, 7 digits to any other building even if the building was in another city. Using these “Tie Lines” meant not only did you not have to dial as many digits, it meant that your call was given priority over someone dialing conventionally. Many employees complained that it made their widdle bwians hurt having to know these numbers or to have to know how to store a web page in their favorites to look it up quickly. The company swung into action! They created a toll free number (11 digits!) with a voice menu that allowed you to push numbers to connect to the department in question. This took roughly ten times as long as knowing the numbers or looking them up on the Intranet but the point was that now the people too lazy and stupid to do their job well were going at the same speed as the ones who weren’t. Of course the company disabled any other way of dialing these departments at the same time! This is because corporations these days have mostly given up on brains; they want unquestioning loyalty and constant self sacrifice, brains are expendable by comparison. I’m going to school to hopefully get a job where brains are respected and they don’t solve the problem of some people being lazy and stupid by bringing everyone else down to their level. Maybe it’s naive to think that I can but I feel obliged to try.
Wow, this is getting interesting.
I see email and IM as serving two different needs.
Email sends a message, usually of importance. Although much quicker then snail mail, the message is usually similar. The mode discourages conversations but can promote dialogue. Ideas can be fleshed out, referred to, expanded upon, updated, and mass distributed. I find email much more useful then the paper of snail mail.
IM sends a message that could be forgotten five minutes later. Usually it is casual conversation converted to text. What is normal for IM is what normally takes place with teens using a cell phone at the mall. Conversation for the sake of conversation with nothing important to say. In other words, for those that can’t string together more then one sentence, if that. IM is just another toy, like cell phones or blackberries.
For those that defy this classification, OK. If you enjoy IMing then go for it. The next time you are IMing though, think about the actual messaging and see how closely it resembles what others have commented on.
If it is important then phone me. We can discuss it without the extraneous computer distractions associated with IMing. We can even discuss it in “real time”. If it is something that doesn’t require immediate action or requires thought, send me an email. And if you want to tell me (and others at the same time) about your vacation or new baby, complete with pictures, then I would love to read the email.
Milo (#19), it’s getting that bad in a lot of places. In my opinion, the focus of companies now is to assume that they can’t attract good people and build an iron-clad process to ensure that they can get by without good people. You then just have to hope that the people who create the process are not as braindead as the ones who it’s being designed for.
I am starting to lose hope for the future of this continent (I am from Canada). At the very least, I expect decline of the empire…
The thing about IM v.s. talking..is you can actually go back and review your IM logs…and save them, cut and paste them…..
You can’t believe what people say on IM that they wouldn’t say in email.