Phone Still Dominant Channel With Today’s Teens

I woke up this morning and was reading the USA Today and was surprised by an article on communication channels by today’s teenagers.  I was sure text messaging or instant messaging would top the list, but instead, it was the good old POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service).  Not cell phones, but land lines.  Surprising to me.

From the article and survey, the percentage of teens who communicate with friends every day via these methods:

• Landline  39%
• Cellphone  35%
• In person  31%
• Instant message  28%
• Text message  27%
• Social networking site  21%
• E-mail  14%  [probably the biggest surprise to me]

The article goes on to provide more details, but the key point was that they just communicate more.  They don’t drop old media as the core technology, but they augment it.  Something to learn perhaps.

My most interesting learning with the younger generation(s) has been their lack of interest in using voicemail.  I remember reading about it on Brazen Careerist (an interesting blog on work/life and generational issues) and have validated it with several people.  They all say that they just look at caller ID and call you back versus actually listening to voicemail.