Email Out, IM In Among Teens

By Geoff Duncan November 3, 2006

Email—long heralded as the Internet’s “killer app”—is getting so old. New online survey research from Parks Associates finds that instant messaging has now topped email the primary online communication tool among teens aged 13 to 17.

Parks Associates report, Digital Media Habits, finds that fewer than 20 percent of people aged 13 to 17 use email as their primary means of communication with friends, compared to some 40 percent of adults aged 25 to 54. But more than one third of online teens reply on instant messaging to keep up with friends, compared to just 11 percent of adults aged 25 to 54.

“We are seeing a generational shift in communication patterns, and email is now old-fashioned,” said John Barrett, director of research at Parks Associates, in a statement. “Teens and young adults are increasingly accustomed to an always-on world where friends and family are instantly accessible.”

Parks Associates research also finds that 30 percent Internet users between 13 and 24 visit social networking sites like MySpace on a daily basis; similarly, Internet users in that same age group are also multitaskers, with some 70 percent using a computer while watching TV.

Other amusing findings from the Digital Media Habits survey: 63 percent of bloggers are under age 24, and the reader-to-writer ratio of for blogs is roughly two-to-one. Roughly half of users of photo sharing Web sites have photos professionally printed every month, and some 35 percent of Internet users are interested in remote monitoring and home automation but haven’t done anything about it.

And here’s one survey finding you probably could have guessed. Twenty-one percent of online daters? Married.

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Geoff Duncan writes, programs, edits, plays music, and delights in making software misbehave. He's probably the only member…

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