Ha, look at you, reading emails, you're so, like, last year. Well, I assume you're reading this via email, it's possible you're looking at it on the CMU Music Network website. Ha, that's so, like, last millennium. No, all the cool kids are too busy instant messaging each other to be bothering with antiquated communication methods like email.
Or at least that's what new research from Dallas-based Parks Associates reckons. They say that less than one fifth of Amercians aged between 13 and 17 use email as a primary communication method with friends, with one third citing IMing as they communication tool of choice. Meanwhile those embarrassingly behind-the-times 25 to 34 year olds (CMU editors excluded, obviously), still use email first (well, 40% do), while only 11% are IMing each other.
Here's what John Barrett, Director Of Research at Parks Associates, IMed me last night: "We are seeing a generational shift in communication patterns, and e-mail is now old-fashioned. Teenagers and young adults are increasingly accustomed to an always-on world where friends and family are instantly accessible. By the way, did that smiling face sticking its tongue out work on your IM reader?"
Of course, because kids can transfer files over their IM systems, the growth in the use of instant messaging means there is a whole new viral network for record companies to be tracking for illegal music sharing - should they have nothing better to do.