<p>My DD seems to have a real aversion to using for the phone for conversation. Don't get me wrong, she never goes anywhere without her cell phone but she only uses it for texting. In fact she texts so much I'm surprised she still has thumbs. Whenever I suggest that she check with someone about something (i.e., work schedule, weekend plans, dorm stuff) she either texts them or posts something on Facebook. I've asked her if it wouldn't just be easier to call them so she could get an immediate response but she just rolls her eyes and tells me that her generation does not talk on the phone. What is she going to do when she gets a real job? Contact her colleagues via text? </p>
<p>I'm a little irritated about the whole thing right now because she was supposed to be checking with her new roommate to see if she needed to purchase a futon for her new dorm room or if the roommate was going to get one. She supposedly texted her or posted something on Facebook and had it all worked out. Before I helped her order the thing I asked her to call her just to make sure. Nope, calling was unnecessary. No one uses the telephone to ...talk! Now I've found out that her rooommate also bought a futon. I'm not sure how DD found out. I'm sure they didn't actually speak to each other. Maybe they sent smoke signals or something. I'm about ready to eliminate texting from my phone plan. Is it just my DD or are they all like that?</p>
<p>I read a briefing recently about kids in this generation that shocked me and I work with social media a lot. I’ll try to find the facts they reported and post it here. While texting is vital to them, one of the things that surprised me is that they don’t use email.</p>
<p>My boys don’t text, we’ve even tried to disable it, but t-mobile won’t let you. I have one contractor who texts me from time to time and I hate it, though I admit it’s actually easier to have phone numbers written down. My younger son’s crowd seems to organize all their get-togethers via facebook. I think adults do more e-mailing, but that’s partly because their phones support it.</p>
<p>Centh,
DD thinks e-mail is just as archaic as talking on the phone. She either texts or posts something on Facebook. It doesn’t seem to be the most efficient way to communicate to me. I’ve given up e-mailing her anything. She never even opens it.
DD has a friend who won’t contact her new roommate because she isn’t on Facebook. I asked her why she just didn’t call or write her since she was given her phone number and address. DD and her friend both looked at me like I was an alien from some distant planet. I guess it will be better to just show up at school in a couple of weeks without having had any communication at all with the new roommate.</p>
<p>Same here. S never calls anyone, always texts. Rarely checks his home email, if I send him something important I have to ask him to look for it, otherwise it sits there for weeks. He will periodically check his school email because that is how his teachers communicate.</p>
<p>At work I prefer email to a phone message. It is just so much easier/faster to open an email than have to open a phone message. A lot of the younger employees use sametime.</p>
<p>This is my ongoing dialogue with both Ds…it drives me crazy! I tell them that with evolution humans will probably lose all ability to speak and develop incredible thumbs.</p>
<p>I am in this field (mobile internet, etc). Wait until US finally catches up with some really advanced communications/high tech market in Asia, like Korea and Japan, which are light years ahead of US in all things high tech. There, when teens break up, they send “dear john” text message. The sign of getting somebody completely out of your hair is to delete him/her from your cell phone contact list. The most frequently cited indication of your girl friend/boy friend cheating on you is no immediate response to text messages. When the other’s cell phone goes dead (turned off) right after you call/send text without immediate response - it’s a universally understood sign that “I never want to see you/hear from you again so much so that I turned my cell phone off”. When a couple register and give permission to each other to tract their geo location via cell phone, it’s an ultimate sign of commitment and trust. </p>
<p>Presidential elections were already fought on the Internet in Korea 10 years ago (Obama is Johnny-come-lately compared to his Korean counterparts). What you saw in Iran (demonstrators relying on something like Twitter) is SO last century in Korea. </p>
<p>Brace yourself. Your kids may as well be aliens when it comes to their use of technology and what it means to YOUR communication with them.</p>
<p>I feel so “current” right not. My 18 year old, 19 year old, my husband and I ALL text each other all the time. It started because that was the easiest way to get the kids to respond. Now, my husband and I actually like it better than calling, especially for “little things” during the day. I think texting is great.</p>
<p>It takes so much longer to text! The same (or more) information can be communicated by phone so much faster. You can tell so much from the tone of someone’s voice. Hard to read that into a text.</p>
<p>Both my S’s are texters too although nowhere close to what I have read about texting among girls. Older S (22) does not text as much as younger S (19). Neither would ever email until S2 got a Blackberry w/ online service. Now emails go straight to his phone just like a text. He will reply to that if he thinks it important. Since his univ. sends out lots of info. via email, that has been helpful for him. Otherwise,I’m sure he would have missed it altogether. It just never occurs to him to check his email on his laptop. Email seems so prehistoric!
S2 is in the working world now so I assume he checks email more than while in college but never emails us. He will call but not very often. </p>
<p>S2 says “texting is the most efficient means of communicatiing”
When S2 gets calls, I usually hear “yeah,OK, maybe,all right, bye”</p>
<p>DH does not text. I only do it when I have an urgent message for one of the kids.
S1 has a 500 text allowance. S2 is unlimited. DH and I have no text allowance. Verizon now charges .20 per text which seems ridiculous. I call or email whenever possible.</p>
<p>Several of DDs friends have told me that they don’t check voice mails and wouldn’t return one even if they did. The day DD ignores a voice mail from me is the day she loses her phone - and she knows it. </p>
<p>I get testing, but I don’t get the whole communicating via Facebook. That requires access to a computer, which isn’t convenient when you are out and about.</p>
<p>Here’s the information on 12-24 year olds that I mentioned earlier:</p>
<p>Will never read a newspaper but attracted to some magazines
Will never own a land-line phone (and maybe not a watch)
Will not watch television on someone else’s schedule much longer
Trust unknown peers more than experts
For first time willing (2005) to pay for digital content. Never before.
Little interest in the source of information and most information aggregated.
Community at the center of Internet experience
Think not interested in advertising or affected by brand, but wrong.
Everything will move to mobile
Television dominates less than any generation before
Want to move content freely from platform to platform with no restrictions
Want to be heard (user generated)
Use IM. Think e-mail is for their parents</p>
<p>The thing about trusting unknown peers more than experts is interesting…and certainly true for my DD, not so much for DS.</p>
<p>I consider that a major loss of actual communication which involves more than just the words which are very easily misconstrued in print. No nuance, inflection or tone.</p>
<p>If you can’t beat 'em, join 'em. I text my kids all the time and we all have Facebook pages. If that’s the way my kids are going to communicate, I want to be a part of it.</p>