Today’s technological whipper-snappers say e-mail is too slow for them, so they’re increasingly relying on text and instant messaging.
“It used to be just fun,” says Danah Boyd, a doctoral candidate who studies social media at the University of California, Berkeley. “Now it’s about parents and authority.”
Yeah, The Man’s always keepin’ you down on e-mail.
The AP story notes youngsters see e-mail as a medium for replying to parents and authorities, but not their peers. And that’s if you can even get them to return an e-mail, most don’t.
“It’s the ultimate social crutch to avoid personal communication,” notes Matthew Felling, 33, an admitted “serial texter” and spokesman for the Center for Media and Public Affairs in Washington. “Don’t want to see someone? Then call them. Don’t want to call someone? E-mail them. Don’t want to take the trouble of writing sentences? Text them.”
You know our collective grammar is poor today? Imagine what our punctuation skills will be like in 20 years, thanks to text.
Via Drudge
