Teenagers these days don't seem to use email. I emailed a high school kid about something and didn't get a response for weeks -- because, I found out later, he rarely checks his email.
"Well, how do you keep in touch with people then?" I asked.
"I text them, or I leave comments on their MySpace," he said.
For a fortysomething Generation Kikaida geek like me, this is unthinkable. I probably check my email a dozen times a day. It's the first window I open when I power up my computer. If I didn't have email access, I would be socially crippled among my circle of friends.
So first... is it true? Do teenagers really not use email?
And second... why?
Is it a permanent generational thing -- will they never use email the way their elders do? Will text messages be the next big communication medium? Will the business correspondence of the ftr b wrtn n txt spk 4 qckr xmssn? Or in 1337?
Or is it a temporary artifact of age and access and lifestyle -- do teens not use email because of their daily habits? Teens aren't office wage slaves (yet) and probably don't sit in front of a computer as much as working adults do. But they do always have their cell phones with them, so getting hold of them that way is more assured. Will they use email more when they grow up and get desk jobs?
"Well, how do you keep in touch with people then?" I asked.
"I text them, or I leave comments on their MySpace," he said.
For a fortysomething Generation Kikaida geek like me, this is unthinkable. I probably check my email a dozen times a day. It's the first window I open when I power up my computer. If I didn't have email access, I would be socially crippled among my circle of friends.
So first... is it true? Do teenagers really not use email?
And second... why?
Is it a permanent generational thing -- will they never use email the way their elders do? Will text messages be the next big communication medium? Will the business correspondence of the ftr b wrtn n txt spk 4 qckr xmssn? Or in 1337?
Or is it a temporary artifact of age and access and lifestyle -- do teens not use email because of their daily habits? Teens aren't office wage slaves (yet) and probably don't sit in front of a computer as much as working adults do. But they do always have their cell phones with them, so getting hold of them that way is more assured. Will they use email more when they grow up and get desk jobs?
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