http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/devlin/13387

Teen Entrepreneurs Say Email is for Work Only
Fri Jul 20, 2007 6:12PM EDT
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We've heard about how email is yesterday's communication for today's teens before, but here are some pretty compelling comments from young entrepreneurs at the center of teen online life about how teens use tech to communicate. They're from Cnet's Stephanie Olsen's report from the YPulse Mashup 2007 conference in San Francisco.

• Emo Girl Talk podcast host Martina Butler says she only uses email for business and to win sponsors.

• If teens send emails to each other, most only do it via Facebook or another social network.

• Teens text. Period. Asheem Badshah, the teen-aged president of Scriptovia.com, an essay-sharing web site, says: "For me even IM died, and was replaced by text messaging. Facebook will replace e-mail for communicating with certain people."

• Catherine Cook, co-founder of MyYearbook.com, said she still emails some friends, but she sends thousands of text messages a month: "I don't know any teen who doesn't have a phone with them all the time."

Hearing it straight from teen entrepreneurs gives parents a look into what they can expect from their own teens. (Thanks to Anne Collier at NetFamilyNews for the link.) How are your teens communicating most these days?



It's a sad day whenever kids of today are already classifying emails as "old school", or "yesterday's news". Is it just me...or do trends of today seem to go by the wayside much quicker than the trends of past eras?

It's just an established, traditional part of the culture now that's so widely used that it no longer has its appeal of being new and cool.....kinda like the way VCRs were in the late '80s. I guess Email was like 1997-2000 as far as having the image of a "hot new thing".

No matter whom it's directed at, I don't like stereotypical things which tend to paint all people of a particular age (or anything else) as only feeling one way. It depends on the person. Althhough I guess I can see why some people would view it as old-school. It's more time consuming than IMs and stuff.

It's just an established, traditional part of the culture now that's so widely used that it no longer has its appeal of being new and cool.....kinda like the way VCRs were in the late '80s. I guess Email was like 1997-2000 as far as having the image of a "hot new thing".

No matter whom it's directed at, I don't like stereotypical things which tend to paint all people of a particular age (or anything else) as only feeling one way. It depends on the person. Althhough I guess I can see why some people would view it as old-school. It's more time consuming than IMs and stuff.



Same here. That person in the article made the comment that, "I don't know any teen who doesn't have a phone with them all the time."  I mean, yes...there are a lot of kids/teens that have cell phones now, but IMO...the only reason that I would want my child to have a cell phone, would be for safety reasons...not to merely look cool, or be like every other child. IMO, I don't think that it is necessary for a child to have a cell phone, or be able to freely have the ability to call anyone he/she wants to. Kids are aging way too quickly nowadays.

Today's kids are weird.  E-mail won't be going anywhere anytime soon.  To e-mail is free.  To text message costs money, but it seems like for today's kids, money is no issue ...

Whenever I go to the local mall, I see all kinds of kids, teens anywhere from say 8 years old to maybe 15 years old coming out of expensive stores carrying all kinds of bags of stuff they bought.  I wish I had it that easy when I was that age

Nobody NEEDS a phone, it's not like they're essential to living or anything, lol. Even if some people act like they're surgically attached to them.

I can see teens having one, but not kids. It's kinda ridiculous to see 8-year olds with them. Even in 1999 that would've been unheard of. I'm sure there were old dudes in the '80s who thought it was stupid for kids to have video games or MTV, but we're right this time, lol.

Today's kids are weird.  E-mail won't be going anywhere anytime soon.  To e-mail is free.  To text message costs money, but it seems like for today's kids, money is no issue ...

Whenever I go to the local mall, I see all kinds of kids, teens anywhere from say 8 years old to maybe 15 years old coming out of expensive stores carrying all kinds of bags of stuff they bought.  I wish I had it that easy when I was that age



Oh I know what you mean. Kids are so spoiled nowadays. They always have to have the "best of the best"....I mean, my parents took care of us and treated us well...but we were nowhere near being spoiled as they are today. ::)

Nobody NEEDS a phone, it's not like they're essential to living or anything, lol. Even if some people act like they're surgically attached to them.

I can see teens having one, but not kids. It's kinda ridiculous to see 8-year olds with them. Even in 1999 that would've been unheard of. I'm sure there were old dudes in the '80s who thought it was stupid for kids to have video games or MTV, but we're right this time, lol.


Yes, I mean they act like it is needed in order for them to function on an everyday basis. People base too much on technical things nowadays.

It's not just kids. It's not even just teens. One of my friends, this 22-year old chick, can't live without her phone or texting people.

You know what's weird (changing the subject a little), I never understood it when some people ripped on video games or music in the '80s or early '90s. It seemed like they were such old geezers lol, but it doesn't seem so strange to do that with Zeroes tech, since it dominates our lives so much.

I had this one teacher in her early 40s who thought Nintendo games were mindless. Yet my dad who was 50 in 1988 played them. Imagine the weirdness of that. ;D

It's not just kids. It's not even just teens. One of my friends, this 22-year old chick, can't live without her phone or texting people.


Yes, I've noticed how prevalent texting has become. When I am with my sister Beth (midknightdarkness), her phone makes a chiming noise like every 2 seconds...and she's like, "oh, that's just another text message"...I don't know about you...but I think it is annoying and difficult to type messages via the keypad on a cellphone.

You know what's weird (changing the subject a little), I never understood it when some people ripped on video games or music in the '80s or early '90s. It seemed like they were such old geezers lol, but it doesn't seem so strange to do that with Zeroes tech, since it dominates our lives so much.

I had this one teacher in her early 40s who thought Nintendo games were mindless. Yet my dad who was 50 in 1988 played them. Imagine the weirdness of that. ;D


ya, like you look at over half of the people that buy video games nowadays...they are grown men! :D

I don't text message very much because I use instant messengers on the computer which are free, and yes it is harder to type on a phone. Email I use pretty regularly for more formal communication generally, though my email box is filled with spam for some reason.

ya, like you look at over half of the people that buy video games nowadays...they are grown men! :D


Well I'm just saying that my parents were quite youngish, which is where my impression of all people came from. My dad didn't play Mario to "be cool" at age 49 or 50 (that's out of his character - he could care less what people think, lol), it was natually something he wanted to do. And that's when video games were kinda new.

I just wish more people were like that. Within reason of course.

  Look at pocket pagers (remember those..?)

  If there's a cool new means of separating us from our $$$, they'll think of it...

  I can only wonder how much farther communications can go.  Well, at least telephones are still around, and I know you have one of those old rotary jobs somewhere in your house, Quirk... ;)

  I do...

  http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2006-6/1193336/Teleportation.jpg

Oh I know what you mean. Kids are so spoiled nowadays. They always have to have the "best of the best"....I mean, my parents took care of us and treated us well...but we were nowhere near being spoiled as they are today. ::)


I once saw a kid in Wal-Mart throw a loud tantrum cause his mom, who was buying him a Game Cube, wouldn't get him a PS2 as well.  He made such a ruckus, that she decided not to get him anything at all, which made him in even more of a rage, that he brushed something off a shelf and it smashed to the floor LOL

When I was a kid, I was lucky that my parents got me the things that I had.  Of course all this rapidly changing technology didn't exist them.  I s'pose if I was a kid in today's techological times, I'd probably throw fits if I didn't have all the latest stuff ;D

^Well that particular kid was a brat, and I'm sure others are too (I've witnessed it myself, lol), but....as a final note for now, I don't think it'e ever a good idea to typecast everyone as being a certain way. It really gives a negative impression to those who don't fit that stereotype. Everyone is different, the underdogs just get less attention, that's all. ;)

One of the biggest pet peeves of mine as a kid, was being lumped with kids like that; as a teen it was being considered some snot-nosed punk merely because of my age. In a reduced extent, the latter applies to me still 'cause in many ways I'm not the typical freewheeling, partying all day, chasing women type of young man. In fact I kinda resent people who are like that.

This is not bona-fide culture; it's marketing and technology.
As I see it, you are comfortable with the technology you grew up with and then one step beyond.  EG. Communication:
I grew up with the basic telephone (I even remember rotary phones, but they were on the wane).  The basic telephone was a simple device  with a handset and a keypad.  The handset plugged into the phone.  The phone plugged into the wall.  You used it to send and receive telephone calls over an endless nexus of wires.  And that was it.  They started marketing the wireless handsets in the '80s.  That wasn't a change, just an improvement.

One step beyond:  The cell phone.  I have a cell phone and to me it's amazing I can keep the whole thing in my pocket and send and receive calls anywhere.  See my avatar...something like that.  It's almost James Bond like!
But I use it as a telephone and nothing else.  It has a dozen or more features I never use.

A 16-year-old today grew up with cell phones.  A "telephone" is not just a telephone.  A cell phone is mundane.  They pick up where I leave off.  They use it for "texting," playing games, taking digital photographs, surfing the Internet, downloading porn....

I grew up writing letters.  When my big sister went away to college, we exchanged letters.  Old technology, improved, but basically the same as what it was 500 years ago.  You wrote words in ink on a sheet of paper, sealed it, and paid a postman to deliver it. 

I'm among the last generation to have a bundle of loveletters stashed somewhere in the attic.  My teenage romances, even college, we shared sweetness, joy, whimsy, events of the day, anger, frustration, break-up, and tears all with handwriting on paper.

One step beyond:  Email.  It's over the Internet and as fast as speaking into a telephone, but it's still a digital version of the old way.

Of course email is old news to teens, the grew up with it.  I resist the temptation to go old geezer and sentimentalize postal mail.  However, teens should beware.  New doesn't necessarily mean improved, and consumption is not the same as progress!
http://www.inthe00s.com/smile/09/smilejap.gif

I know!  I'm almost 18 and don't have a cell-phone.  When I see people in stores talking on their cell-phones I'm like...Seriously, how many people do you actually know that you can just talk on that thing all day?  I think it would be a good thing you could use in emergencies (if you were having car trouble or something).  But otherwise I have no reason to get one.

My brother doesn't have a cell either.  He said people where he works were like, "What?!  Why don't you have a cell-phone?"  He was like, "Who's gonna call me?  No one, so what's the point."  LOL. ;D

Well, I'm 20 now, and to me email, and the internet as a whole, is still sort of a new thing. I got a cell phone last year, but I don't really use it that much anyway. And I do send text messages, but only if I have something to tell someone but can't talk on the phone. Even though its nice to have a cell phone and internet, etc. I could live without it.

I think that because I didn't 'grow up' with internet access and the ability to send email, that sort of stuff will always seem new to me, sort of like how television may have seen to those born in the 1910's or 1920's.

^ Yeah, I adapted to the online world when I was 14-15, so I'll always appreciate it in that "newish" sense, no matter how big or dominant it ever becomes. I also only use a cellphone once in a blue moon (i.e. calling someone to pick me up, or talking for a few minutes if I get a call), but I certainly am not attached to it in any sense. For some people, living without one would be like having no electricity or something, lol.

^ Yeah, I adapted to the online world when I was 14-15, so I'll always appreciate it in that "newish" sense, no matter how big or dominant it ever becomes. I also only use a cellphone once in a blue moon (i.e. calling someone to pick me up, or talking for a few minutes if I get a call), but I certainly am not attached to it in any sense. For some people, living without one would be like having no electricity or something, lol.



Yeah, its kinda weird to think about the fact that someone born, say 7 or 8 years after me has grown up in a world where everyone has always had a computer, everyone has always had cell phones, and video game systems have always had 3D graphics.

Of course, the biggest reason a headline like that ^ makes news is to get you young people who don't "text" on board.  Support the news medias sponsors!
::)

...I don't know about you...but I think it is annoying and difficult to type messages via the keypad on a cellphone.


Oh, me too!  I don't care to text unless it's absolutely necessary.  Once a friend texted me all through a date to keep me apprised how it was going and to get support.  Not fun for me at all.

I once saw a kid in Wal-Mart throw a loud tantrum cause his mom, who was buying him a Game Cube, wouldn't get him a PS2 as well.  He made such a ruckus, that she decided not to get him anything at all, which made him in even more of a rage, that he brushed something off a shelf and it smashed to the floor LOL

Give her a round of applause!  I hope she made him pay for what he broke out of his allowance.

When I was a kid, I was lucky that my parents got me the things that I had.  Of course all this rapidly changing technology didn't exist them.  I s'pose if I was a kid in today's techological times, I'd probably throw fits if I didn't have all the latest stuff ;D


We didn't have any sort of video game system at our house as kids, but then again, neither did a lot of kids.  Anyone who wanted to play Nintendo simply went over to the home of another kid who had it!  It just wasn't an issue.

Something I find really hard to adjust to is sharing one's whole life on a blog.  When my sister (30 at the time) was separated from her husband for a time, she shared every last tiny detail on her Myspace blog.  My best friend from high school, who is my age (35 this year), shares EVERYTHING IMAGINABLE on hers.  The night my ex and I broke up, I sent an email to those two and no one else.  I only have 17 Myspace friends, but do I want all of them to see my raw, unadulterated pain in real time?  Nuh-uh.

   Look at pocket pagers (remember those..?)

   If there's a cool new means of separating us from our $$$, they'll think of it...

   I can only wonder how much farther communications can go.  Well, at least telephones are still around, and I know you have one of those old rotary jobs somewhere in your house, Quirk... ;)

   I do...

   http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2006-6/1193336/Teleportation.jpg


To be honest...I don't have a rotary phone...but I would like to get one to go with my retro kitchen that I am currently working on! ;)


I once saw a kid in Wal-Mart throw a loud tantrum cause his mom, who was buying him a Game Cube, wouldn't get him a PS2 as well.  He made such a ruckus, that she decided not to get him anything at all, which made him in even more of a rage, that he brushed something off a shelf and it smashed to the floor LOL

When I was a kid, I was lucky that my parents got me the things that I had.  Of course all this rapidly changing technology didn't exist them.  I s'pose if I was a kid in today's techological times, I'd probably throw fits if I didn't have all the latest stuff ;D


Oh believe me...I work in retail, and I see a few brats a week coming in the store...throwing rants and tantrums because mommy and daddy aren't buying them the entire store. One little girl (couldn't have been over the age of 6 or 7) was calling her mother an "azzhole" over and over again...and all the mother kept saying was, "if you aren't gonna be good, you will not get anything" :o ::)


Something I find really hard to adjust to is sharing one's whole life on a blog.  When my sister (30 at the time) was separated from her husband for a time, she shared every last tiny detail on her Myspace blog.  My best friend from high school, who is my age (35 this year), shares EVERYTHING IMAGINABLE on hers.  The night my ex and I broke up, I sent an email to those two and no one else.  I only have 17 Myspace friends, but do I want all of them to see my raw, unadulterated pain in real time?  Nuh-uh.


Oh, I know. I post in my blog..but nothing TOO personal and such, plus my myspace is private, so not just anyone can look at it, I have to add them first. BTW, you mentioned that you had a myspace...if you wanna add me, here's mine: myspace.com/quirky_cat_girl. :)

Heard about a teen who went out joggingwith his Bluetooth, IPOD, and iphone...It rained and he exploded!

Whenever I go to the local mall, I see all kinds of kids, teens anywhere from say 8 years old to maybe 15 years old coming out of expensive stores carrying all kinds of bags of stuff they bought.  I wish I had it that easy when I was that age

I see plenty of this every time I visit the mall (which is not very often), especially with the under-16 crowd. I keep thinking to myself, Good heavens, where are these kids getting the money to buy all this stuff? What kind of allowances are parents giving their children? When I was in my early teens (when my parents felt I was old enough to get an allowance), I got $3.00 a week ($1.00 went into my savings account) for cleaning the house, the yard, and the pool.

I have a cell phone, but I seldomly use it (I keep it for emergencies). I don't even know HOW to text message! Just the other day, I saw someone driving and text messaging at the same time, wobbling between lanes. It's bad enough when someone is jabbering on their cell phone or bluetooth while driving, but text messaging?!!? That's just insane.  >:(

Today's kids are weird.  E-mail won't be going anywhere anytime soon.  To e-mail is free.  To text message costs money, but it seems like for today's kids, money is no issue ...

Whenever I go to the local mall, I see all kinds of kids, teens anywhere from say 8 years old to maybe 15 years old coming out of expensive stores carrying all kinds of bags of stuff they bought.  I wish I had it that easy when I was that age


Right.. what's with this s**t now. Kids.. running up $100 phone bills.. have their phones taken for a week and stuff.. if I ran up a $100 bill of any sort.. my Dad would have walked down to the garage with me... and hit me.. really f**king hard.. and I wouldn't have done it again.  ;D

Dagnabbit! Kids these days! Back in my day when i wanted to make a call I had to walk 80 miles through the snow uphill both ways to get to the nearest phone and we liked it! Nowadays i see these little whippersnappers with their hippy hair listening to this newfangled rock and roll and texting on my lawn! I'm trying to watch Lawrence Welk dadgummit! *shakes his fist in the air*

To be honest...I don't have a rotary phone...but I would like to get one to go with my retro kitchen that I am currently working on! ;)

Oh believe me...I work in retail, and I see a few brats a week coming in the store...throwing rants and tantrums because mommy and daddy aren't buying them the entire store. One little girl (couldn't have been over the age of 6 or 7) was calling her mother an "azzhole" over and over again...and all the mother kept saying was, "if you aren't gonna be good, you will not get anything" :o ::)

Oh, I know. I post in my blog..but nothing TOO personal and such, plus my myspace is private, so not just anyone can look at it, I have to add them first. BTW, you mentioned that you had a myspace...if you wanna add me, here's mine: myspace.com/quirky_cat_girl. :)


Mine's private as well.  I'll add you as soon as I get to a computer where Myspace isn't firewalled...mine is in my profile, it's myspace.com/sorry_n_glad_2gether...

I still sort of use e-mail.

I still sort of use e-mail.

How do you "sort of" use email?  Is that like be a little bit pregnant?
I mean, plenty of folks use email infrequently, but if you send and receive messages, you use email.

I prefer email to phone, especially when dealing with members of my infuriating dysfunctional family.  It gives me control over content and time of response, which is important in negotiations.
BTW, you know you've got a dysfunctional family when familial relations are "negotiations."  I don't mean like contesting a will, I mean like who has to aplogise to whom for nasty remarks at last weekend's birthday party!
:D