I remember an episode of The Flintstones where Fred accidentally becomes a rockstar, “Hi-Fye”. Wilma gets jealous and starts a rumour among the cool kids that he’s actually a square. Fred is brought rapidly down to earth. I am Fred Flintstone, it seems.
The cool kids don’t do email any more, according to an Associated Press report [the original link is now defunct, but the story survives here. I also note that it's subject is now a senior PR manager]. To an MTV generation, that whole send and receive thing is far too slow, the story says. Plus, they get email at school and at work, so that’s like… really heavy. When they’re doing their thing, Generation Y apparently prefers the ping of the instant messenger.
Chintan Talati, who is 28, often uses instant message with other younger peers at his work…. He prefers IM over e-mail. ‘It’s a way to get a quicker answer,’ he says.
It’s the sort of thing that makes my ‘grumpy old man’ side see red. F*** off, Chintan. I’ll answer when I’m good and ready. In about three weeks. Even the reporter can’t use English: “often uses Instant Message”. Doesn’t take a lot of time, does it, do read through your post, eh? It makes me want to immediately launch into a Luddite diatribe about the death of proper letter-writing. And they can’t spell. ‘Kewl cu l8r’? What kind of communication is that? And then, when they get together all they do is grunt. But that’s because I’m Fred Flintstone. But also because it’s nonsense.
Everybody uses communication channels that are appropriate to what they are saying. The difference isn’t necessarily on the basis of what age you are. I use instant messaging to make social arrangements with people I know well. I am willing to bet that young people would not appreciate getting their exam results in an IM (Woah, man, you got an F); they would expect a letter or a phone call if they were offered a job, not an SMS (You’re in. See you Mon); there are certain types of communication that are suited to more casual forms and some that are not (Yr wife dead. l8r).
So to rewrite that story a little more realistically: “Shock news: Casual communication tools used for casual communications”.
Help spread this post:
Social tools, devices and web evolution are creating epochal change in media, society and business. The plan is to 
One Comment
No mate, you are just out of touch ;)
Take your point about correct channels for different communications, though!
Rob