Teens swap email for social network sites to stay in touch

EARLIER this week Nielson released a report revealing how Americans spend their time online has changed dramatically over the past 12 months.

As people spend more time on social networking sites such as Facebook, time spent emailing was down 28% and instant messaging dropped 15%.

This news has industry executives speculating how the trend could affect how teenagers who have grown up texting and using social networking sites will communicate with each other in the future.

Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg said last month during a conference that “email is probably going away”. Although this claim received some backlash online, there is indeed evidence that some consumers are finding alternative ways to stay in touch with their friends.

“Email isn’t necessarily going to go away all together, especially since some of us still write letters once in awhile,” said John Barrett, the director of research for market research firm Parks Associated, which specialises in consumer technology trends.

“Even though communication habits change, they all have their proper use and give us options to choose from. We are, however, seeing a large shift toward communicating through Facebook and less with email.”

Teenagers today consider email to be a “grown-up medium” and not ideal for day-to-day communication with their peers, according to a recent study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project and the University of Michigan.

It’s no secret that teens love to text – in fact, half send 50 or more text messages a day – or 1,500 texts a month – and one in three send more than 100 texts a day, the study found, which involved a national survey of 800 teens and nine focus groups in four US cities.

But as these quick and casual messages dominate how they communicate, email has taken a back seat – with teens citing the platform as a “formal” and “grown-up” way to be in touch with adults.

Only 11% of teens use email to communicate with friends each day, according to the Pew report.

Scott Campbell, co-author of the report who is also an assistant professor of communication studies at University of Michigan, believes once teens go to college and begin networking and job searching, email will become a more important way for them to communicate.

Texting will continue to play a heavy role in their lives until their mid-20s, Campbell said.

Email is not the only medium that has taken a hit from the expansion of text messaging and social networking.

“Teenagers are now overlooking the landline phone too,” Campbell said.