Major update on teen tech use

Were we this nuanced as teenage communicators?! I learned from the just-released study of "Teens and Technology" by the Pew Internet & American Life Project that, for today's 12-to-17-year-olds…

* Email is adults' communications tool, so it's more for communicating with them, not peers - and maybe "a way to convey lengthy and detailed information to large groups."
* Instant-messaging is for everyday casual conversation with friends; and it's "efficient." (One high school girl told Pew that, with IM, "if you only have like an hour and a half to spend on the Internet, then you could talk to like maybe 10 people. Whereas you can only talk to three people if you were going to call.")
* The phone, unlike IM, is for serious conversations, and "the landline phone remains the most dominant communication medium in teens' everyday life" (51% "usually choose" it when they want to talk with friends, as opposed to 24% who usually choose IM and 12% cellphone).
* Away/not online messages in IM - customized, when one's IM service allows, with jokes, coded messages, quotations, etc. - are to maintain "presence" in one's social group even when not in the conversation of the moment. IM is an outlet for personal expression - screennames, profiles, avatars, skins, emoticons, and away messages.
* Face-to-face still rules (an average 12-to-17-year-old spends 10.3 hours a week socializing with friends in person and 7.8 hours/wk socializing via phone, IM, email, or phone-texting).

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