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E-mail Is For Old People

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the back-in-my-day-we-had-pine-and-we-liked-it dept.

Strolls writes "Although the article itself doesn't seem quite as exciting or newsworthy, this headline from Reuters amused me mightily. Reuters' summary is here and here's the original survey by Pew Internet and American Life Project." From the article: "Internet users from 12 to 17 years old say e-mail is best for talking to parents or institutions, but they are more likely to fire up IM when talking with each other, the nonprofit Pew Internet and American Life Project found. E-mail is still used by 90 percent of online teens. But the survey found greater enthusiasm for instant messaging."

9 of 562 comments (clear)

  1. Different technologies, different purpose by It+doesn't+come+easy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    IM is for conversation, email is for documentation.

    IM is for communication in real-time, email is for communication any time.

    IM is for communication with someone online, email is for communication with someone online or offline.

    IM is for temporary messaging, email is for permanent messaging.

    IM is for instant messaging, email is for persistent messaging.

    As a group, teens have more time to sit and chat than adults, hence the preference for IMing friends. IM is just the electronic equivalent of hanging out at the mall.

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    1. Re:Different technologies, different purpose by sidb · · Score: 5, Insightful

      M is just the electronic equivalent of hanging out at the mall

      IM is the electronic equivalent of telephones, which are a notorious teen passtime.

  2. IM and Email complement one another by bigwavejas · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Of course kids are going to love instant gratification through real-time instant messaging as opposed to email. Until they grow up and find themselves in business situations where they're going to need to coordinate meetings, share presentations/comments and work with peers/partners who live in different time zones there simply isn't a need for them to use email. Can you imagine logging in and finding your desktop covered with IM pop-ups from customers and colleagues? It's just not practical in the business arena to use IM as the only means of communication.

    --
    "Simplify, simplify, simplify!" Thoreau
  3. Ask the kids again... by Valiss · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...AFTER they get a job. If I get less than 50 e-mails a day at work, it's a Christmas day miracle.

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    -Valiss
  4. IM = Instant Gratification by reporter · · Score: 5, Insightful
    The young adults of today are part of "Generation Y", which was discussed in a report titled "The Echo Boomers" and broadcast by "60 Minutes" in 2004 December. The report states, " Levine calls the phenomenon visual motor ecstasy, where any cultural accoutrement that doesn't produce instant satisfaction is boring. As echo boomers grow up, they'll have to learn that life is not just a series of headlines and highlight reels ".

    The main reason that instant messaging (IM) is popular among young adults is that it provides the kind of instant gratification that e-mail cannot provide. IM gives you instant interaction with the other party: friend, girl friend, etc. E-mail responses are usually not instantaneous and depend on whether the recipient of the e-mail note has logged onto her computer and actually read the note.

    1. Re:IM = Instant Gratification by Luyseyal · · Score: 5, Insightful
      Children have never had anything to say to each other. Their conversation has always been inane chatter, mere practice for real conversation as adults

      Have you ever sat and listened to random people conversing? Both the old and the young talk about stupid shit all the time. So children do not have a monopoly on "inane" conversation. Furthermore, children do talk about important things, just rarely when adults are within earshot.

      $0.02USD,
      -l

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  5. Huh? What's the point? by Octagon+Most · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "E-mail is still used by 90 percent of online teens. But the survey found greater enthusiasm for instant messaging."

    "Three-quarters of teen Internet users use instant messaging, compared with 42 percent of adults."

    OK, 90% of teens use email and 75% of teens use IM. Yet teens have a "greater enthusiasm for instant messaging"? Sure, a greater enthusiasm than adults (75% to 42% according to this survey). Is that a surprise to anyone? But they are still more likely to be users of email. So what's the point of this?

  6. Re:IM is a distraction EMAIL is .... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    IM is a huge pain in the butt.
    IM is a distraction.
    IM is a total waste of my time.

    I used IM for a very brief period and got sick of everyone expecting an answer __right__ __now__. So I no longer use it. Ever.

    Didn't /. just have an article about three minute distraction intervals and the loss of creativity?

    Bingo!

    You want an answer from me, send email.
    When I get around to it, I'll read it. And then after that, when I get around to it, I'll answer it.

    EMAIL works. IM interrupts work.

  7. Pompous blabber by PCM2 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The main reason instant messaging (IM) became popular with me is that my buddy Thad lives in Kansas City, while I live in San Francisco, yet we both happen to be sitting in front of computers all day. I later realized that it allows me to chat with my friend Dave, who works in an office in Redwood City, and we could both say the most horrible, offensive, profanity-laden things without alarming all the people in the cubes next to us.

    That's it. No pop psychology or armchair media-studies theories required.

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