According to the teen panel at YPulse, yes.
Social networks are the new hubs and operating systems. Facebook and MySpace messages are the new email. Teens check these sites several times a day as opposed to that many times a week. “Even then, my emails are all from Facebook,” said one girl on the panel. Some even call it “email.” “I use it to communicate with adults, but hardly ever with friends” said Ashley Qualls (right), and that was the consensus.
This anecdotal evidence is backed up by the latest report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project. According to their overview, 91% of all social networking teens say they use SNS like Facebook, MySpace and MyYearbook to stay in touch with friends they see frequently, while 82% use these sites to stay in touch with friends they rarely see in person. 72% of all social networking teens use these sites to make plans with friends.
Call for an SNS Client
As Social networks threaten AOL and Microsoft, the question is raised of compatibility. Just as IM clients like Jabber, Adium and Pidgin amass all your IM addresses into one central server, social networks need a similar aggregator. With the proliferation of niche SNS, teens are signing up for them like clubs on the first day of school. Join as many as you can and see what sticks. As such, they are also impermanent, unlike phone numbers or addresses for adults. This causes the digital drop-off effect (to coin a phrase). A friend can leave a social network and be impossible to find again. Until all social networks open their APIs like Facebook, though, this may be long way off….
IM Texting U
Alternatively, teens use IM for friend-to-friend messaging. A friend’s little brother actually asked his prom date out over AIM (where’s the romance?) But Aseem Badshah from Scriptovia (left) boldly declared that even “IM is dead”–that texting has taken its place. Aseem sleeps with his phone under his pillow and even takes it into the bathroom while he showers. Catherine Cook admits to sending over 1,000 texts a months, often typing away at the dinner table. Indeed, more than 158 billion text messages were sent in the U.S. in 2006. We’re guessing a good portion where over pot roast.
The Hard Cell
The mobile panel later in the day spoke about SNS opportunities via mobile—definitely an emerging space (check out VelvetPuffin). 73% of teens ages 13-17 are sending text messages from their cell phones. 40% of teens have downloaded apps to their phones, such as Facebook. But right now, only 20% of teens have e-mail on the handset. For this to truly evolve, data plans need to come down in rates (ad-based models? Check out Mobile Campus), and mobile phones need to be more, well, mobile.
More from other YPulse attendees:
Kids say e-mail is, like, soooo dead | CNET News.com
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1 NGT News: Mobile Music, Cellphone Addiction, Nokia Aquires Symbian // Jun 24, 2008 at 11:14 am
[…] say e-mail just doesn’t cut it [Daily Herald] Is email dead? Teens today prefer texting and IM instead, but keep accounts to communicate with the adult […]
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