Although inconsistent in how they're spelling it (text-messaging vs text messaging and eMail vs e-mail), the messages from all three are the same.
USA Today
reports:
Text-messaging replacing eMail among youth
In the era of instant gratification, students and recent graduates are
used to being plugged in 24/7, and view eMail as a slower, less
convenient means of communication...
Associated Press reports:
'E-mail has become the new snail mail' as younger set goes with text messaging
Mercury News reports:
SITES LIKE MYSPACE OFFERING `INSTANT' SOCIAL SCENE, FAST MESSAGING ATTRACT YOUNG USERS, STUDY SHOWS
CHICAGO -- E-mail is so last millennium. Young people see it as a good
way to reach an elder - a parent, teacher or a boss - or to receive an
attached file. But increasingly, the former darling of high-tech
communication is losing favor to instant and text messaging, and to the
chatter generated on blogs and social networking sites such as Facebook
and MySpace.
Email is FORMAL correspondence?
That said, no one is predicting the death of e-mail. Besides its
usefulness in formal correspondence, it also offers the ability to send
something from "one to many," says Anne Kirah, a senior design
anthropologist at Microsoft who studies people's high-tech habits. That
might include an announcement for a club or invitation to a party.
Many college students are logged on 24/7 and the shift is starting to creep into workplace communication, too.
Chintan Talati, who is 28, often uses instant message with other
younger peers at his work, a California-based Web site that provides
automotive information to consumers. He prefers IM over e-mail. "It's a
way to get a quicker answer," he says.
And how do we help students make transitions to college and the world of work?:
"Nine to 5 has been replaced with 'Give me a deadline and I will
meet your deadline,"' Kirah says of young people's work habits.
"They're saying 'I might work until 2 a.m. that night. But I will do it
all on my terms."'
