I've been thinking a lot lately about the changing nature of electronic communications. The main reason I've been thinking about this is my little sister. She is 8 years old and recently got a cellphone. Almost immediately she started texting her friends. I get the occasional text from her as well.
Then yesterday there was a study linked on Slashdot from the Pew Internet & American Life Project about the use of the Internet by teenagers. One of the most interesting conclusions of this study is that teenagers view e-mail as a way to communicate with adults, institutions and as a formal communication tool. When they want to talk with their peers or in an informal basis they use instant messaging. This shouldn't come as much of a surprise, but it is another reality that adults and institutions will have to adjust for. Companies who want to communicate with teenagers should start to offer instant messaging.
Finally, I just got done reading a story at NY Times about a woman's experience with an accelerated dating life cycle that she feels was caused by phone texting.
So is this the future of communications with the increasingly tech savvy and instantly connected young adult population? What are the consequences of this way of communicating? Should the the older (and by older I mean anyone over 25-years-old) communicators adapt to this way of communicating? This may be a false choice. "Should" may be irrelevant, if we don't adapt then we may just be left behind. The better question might be how fast can we adapt or what happens to those who fail to adapt quickly enough.
Posted by Noah Brimhall at July 29, 2005 01:08 PM