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Teens, adults separated by IM gap

WILL LESTER

Associated Press

Latest comment posted at 2:59 PM EDT 13/12/06

LOL (laugh out loud), IMHO (in my humble opinion) its best to KPC (keep parents clueless) ...Read the full article

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  1. steve blackwool from Toronto, Canada writes: I hope this won't be misconstrued, but a 51 year old mechanic uses the internet for reading celebrity gossip? One more stereotype broken...
  2. John Akermanis from Aurora, Canada writes: The teens think its cool using IM, which makes them very accessible to all their friends. One day, like some of us older dudes, they will see we are not as dumb as we look, and we choose to limit our use of IM that allows people to reach you 24x7.

    Allowing others to get to you 24x7 is just an invasion of personal space and more times than not, time away from IM or what ever, is sweet! You also learn to ignore the phone or cell phone as a more powerful way to deal with intrusions into your space.
  3. Anti Elvis from The New Saudi Arabia, Alberta, Canada writes: As an internet junkie for over 13 years, I can't imagine not using IM. Long ago, I stopped calling my parents because I can just chat with them in MSN. Seeing my soon to be teenage son never listens to me, I just added myself to his MSN, so I can tell him to clean his room that way (with a happy face of course).
  4. G Sears from Ottawa, Canada writes: As a baby boomer who is trying to project the appearance of being 'with it', we often experiment with IM in our office ( to try and discover what 'magic' it holds), but find that email is more useful. The reason is that often I have to go back to find old e-mail messages, in order to check on whether I followed up on some promise I made to a client, for example. With e-mail, you can have years of history on a particular project, and can fairly easily search for a particular message. I wonder if IM is more popular among young people because the past is irrelevant in the context of their IM communications with their friends.
  5. Scott Young from Markham, Canada writes: I'm a young adult working in an office environment and I thought it was quite funny to read this article. I certainly notice the difference in my communication with my friends versus my colleagues/professional contacts. This article is bang on the money about the communications (or lack thereof) differences between youth and adults
  6. John Smith from Calgary, Canada writes: Same crap, different pile. There is nothing new about the generation gap, and when these teens become parents another new technology will validate that gap.

    Not all teens are as disconnected from their parents as this article suggests. Unfortunately that view doesn't sell newspapers or online subscriptions.
  7. Rollen Lee from Body in London, Heart in B.C., Canada writes: It's not a generational disconnect - it's a change in the way people envision and craft their writing, even their speech. A friend of mine who lectured an undergrad course said that they complained about the 'length' of a 120-page book, and I've seen plenty of sentence fragments in formal writing over the last few years of teaching. I enjoy Instant Messaging - but I find more than two conversations unsatisfying since I tend to punctuate and emply complete sentences. mebe i wil lern sumday 2 writ betr - lol ;)
  8. S. Ives from Ottawa, Canada writes: I've sent this column to my daughter so that we can laugh about it next month. I don't use IM because I say so. And that's why she has a cell phone. ;-)
  9. Umm... Toronto from Canada writes: And more teens spend more time on the telephone than adults...
  10. marlene gregory from Toronto, Canada writes: I know one twenty year old who has over 150 msn friends available at any one time, categorized by the continent....he talks to friends all over the world, from different continents or cultures, all at the same time. This is a very different preception of socializing than any previous generation in history. This of course is the way the younger people will expect to conduct business in the 21st century.
  11. Lauren H from Canada writes: Yeah, the real reason (on cell phones anyway) is that they don't have to pay the bills for all those IMs and they've grown up with cell phones and their friends all have them in class all day. And I'm 23, i'm not that much older. I'll tell you though that in university where more people are poor and people are (mostly) paying their own bills, the generation is similar but the message number and IM use goes way down. When it gets to be their own money they'll learn. Plus 100 messages? Get-a-life! Really not much to do I guess! As to IMs through msn, icq and whatever--people leave it on all the time so going online you see everyone who is there available. Even if it's 2am and a time you wouldn't call someone, you can talk to them without intruding if their msn is on. As to protecting private space, everyone who uses these things assigns themselves a 'state' which is often a lie--they'll be labelled 'busy' or 'away' but really that's an excuse so that if they don't feel like talking to you (even close friends) they can safely ignore you without being rude. If they do want to talk they'll reply. Makes sense really and it certainly has helped with long distance communication and homework in some circles. This crap about the younger generations being worse communicators and so on is just that, crap, since many have surprisingly larger personal (electronic) circles than anyone older has learned to study.
  12. Vapor Pressure from Alberta, Canada writes: My kids all use it to make initial contact or plan events. My wife uses it to talk to my eldest. My eldest also used to create 1/2 inch thick cell phone bills (for $10/month texting) that overlaps with IM (for those who aren't aware of that and its not mentioned here) and then Bell discovered online billing. However, although I did this on some dead AOL precursor 15 years ago (when there were long distance charges for connections) and dabbled in smart phones 5 years ago and am presently tortured with a hand held maintenance tabulator still stuck with 'com ports emulated over USB' at work ... sometimes my worn out old daytimer and a phone call are more efficient. Then again my eldest answers text but not phone calls on her cell. I may be forced to embrace this 'trial balloon' decades old technology yet. This stuff makes 'gaming computers' , 'first generation media recorders', and 'getting the newest gaming console on release' look like intelligent consumer decisions.
  13. paul leinweber from london, Canada writes: Does the up and coming generation need their friends around them all day long? Do these young people start IM's to their friends before noon or is that a no no? As a student growing up I seldom asked for homework help from a friend are these kid relying too much on this buddy system that requires them to check in on a daily basis or be left out in the cold? So if my parents are not wealthy enough to provide me with a cell phone then I get left out of the crowd? What is happening to our society when we have to be connected or become disconnected? All of these questions are some day going to have a lasting affect on the youth that will be asked to work independently on a particular job. It will be interesting to know the answers to some of these questions. As for me, email is still the action of choice, but when I talk to friends that don't even have a computer handy I wonder at how they manage to get by on a day to day basis. For those that don't know how to program their VCR is it any wonder that a computer is non existent let alone IM's?
  14. Jake Richardson from Kingston, Canada writes: #4, From personal experience, IM is like the conversation you have with your co-worker when you run into him at the water cooler - just a quick 'hey, how are ya?'. It's like the conversation you have when you bump into a friend at the bar, or like the conversation you have when you want to ask a co-worker, 'hey, can you check what brand the thing should be for client x?'

    In other words, most IM is just quick chats, and only a special breed actually uses it for anything of consequence.
  15. Jennifer Menna from Newmarket, Canada writes: I used to us IM a lot in past years. It helped to keep in touch with friends from University. I also spent long hours on IM before getting married to keep in touch with my fiance who lived in a different city. I haven't however used IM in about 2 years. I found I was spending to much time chatting about nothing. I prefer to talk on the phone where you can get additional feedback from the tone of voice. I have also found I like sending snail mail. It is a nice surprise to get something in the mail besides bills and junk mail. For quick notes to friends and business communication it's email. As mentioned above with email the history is searchable at your fingertips.
  16. Helen Pettingill from Ontario, Canada writes: Ya no kidding teens & adults are separated in their internet communication use. OMG. LOL! If u wr an old fgy lik me, u wood undrstnd tht nonsns speek they use is impossible to understand btw. LOL. (It took me the longest time to figure out wht that means). BRB - be right back. Maybe I'm starting to get the hang of it. It's much easier to rite in plain English. POS means parent over shoulder btw. I'm sure it would take me a serious month of Sundays to figure out their logos.
    Old folks like me just don't have the time for idle, meaningless chit chat on IM. If we need to communicate with someone, we either send them a proper email or telephone them. But teens are different & need their friends. As long as it's kept harmless & supervised, it's OK. Easier said than done I know 4 u & 4 me. I have no idea how they switch from IM lingo to proper English when they need to in school. It's like two different languages.
  17. Darryl Williams from Canada writes: Jennifer Menna - you hit the nail on the head. 'I found I was spending to much time chatting about nothing.'

    The saying 'A mile wide and an inch deep' comes to mind when thinking about this topic. Gee, I'm so popular, I have thousands of friends. 'Look everyone, I'm typing on a computer!! Now the sun is out. Oops, the phone is ringing. Ow, I just bumped my knee on my computer tower. I had french fries for breakfast.'

    Oh, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have been saying the above things in coherent sentences - let me translate. wousdjasr7gre 19sejeryudnvv ljlsoyosrye dasjd dsh riozx. e0asujjfefh dja89vfqweh thrhao. There, that was much better and far more efficient.

    It was also interesting to note that only one or two people mentioned the cost. Cellphones, text messaging - kids, go ahead and send a billion a day if you want, but you're paying for it. Oh, not so attractive now, is it? I guess its just like the MacDonald's strategy, hook them while they're young, and you've got them for life.
  18. can I vote again from around-Kingston, Canada writes: maybe it's a coincidence, but having read through a number of posts on this subject has me wondering... those comments don't really go anywhere, I suppose the posters must be Instant Messaging at the same time... ha ha

    Anyway, posts 15,16 & 17 are pretty much bang on. I personally define IM in the same camp as those hooked on Blackberrys and acquiring the latest ring-tones. Those people rely on 24x7, in-your-face (actually in other peoples faces) technologies to elevate their self-importance and stature...while at the same time not accomplishing anything of value. It's like TV, a truly great invention but the content dumbs it down, I suppose it's only a matter of time until TV can figure out how to capture a market of young people who want to IM at the same time as watching -some program- because with the amount of time the young people are spending chatting about nothing is keeping them from spending time staring at TV. umm...LOL
  19. S. Ives from Ottawa, Canada writes: I had to laugh at #18 (while waiting for my daughter to respond... next January). Substitute 'LaC' (leave a comment) for 'IM' (instant message) and the result is remarkably similar.
  20. Gord Murray from Canada writes: How does one find such lists online? Google such as 'kid's inside online acronyms'?
  21. Andrea Timmons from Kingston, Ontario, Canada writes: We adults are just too uncool & too lazy to learn the IM lingo.
  22. harry carnie from Telkwa, British Columbia,, Canada writes: Teenagers activities on the net?:

    1) eating a reasonably healthy diet

    2) getting enough execise, and sleep.

    3) NOT abusing the legal drugs(tobacco and booze)

    4) NOT using hard illegal drugs (crack, meth.)

    5) living with common sense ( NO drunk/ drug driving/ street racing

    6) no waste of family funds.

    If this criteria is met, who realy gives a rats behind about their internet
    activities, as long as school obligations are met. Generation gap?...hell yes,
    it preserves parent sanity..who would really want to try to understand, and communicate on the 'same level' with a teenager. Love and respect,YES ... BUT The friendship develops when they are in their late 20s.
    Was one, raised one.

    Adult internet activities?..whatever is legal and makes people happy...most face to face friendships are superficial anyway..if anything, people are more honest to strangers on the internet.
  23. Andrea Timmons from Kingston, Ontario, Canada writes: If Adults really want to break into teens' coded online communication, then all they have to do is ask the teens to teach them how.
    My daughter taught me. I hate it though & won't do IM chat. I'm a former English teacher & it's hard to change, LOL.
    Besides it's much better for me to improve my typing speed if I spell out complete words than if I cheat the way the kids do.
    No wonder many of them are such lousy spellers/typists.
    Kids will be kids. We all had our own lingo when we were kids & the world didn't end.
    Let's not forget there are many sociologists, linquists, etc out there who are getting big bucks to decode the kids' messages. They advertize how scary the kids' messages really are & shock concerned parents to buy their books to find out.
    It's a lot easier & more rewarding for both groups, if parents just listen to their kids & vice versa.
    And it's a lot cheaper.

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