My research among teens suggests that emails are becoming passé and text messaging is their latest fad. I say “fad” because youth are fickle and are into the latest trends, especially if they are in the forefront of using novel technologies that adults are ignorant of or find uncomfortable to use. I am specifically talking about the majority of the under 18 crowd. This change has become apparent to me when the emails I’ve been sending out – often with important info that the kids want to have – are not read or answered in a week’s time. Frustrated, I would call and if I got through, they would say “we tried to send you text messages” but I would apologize and say that I don’t have “it.” Am I out of the loop or what?
Okay, okay… I know what you are thinking. Maybe they just don’t want to talk with Dr. John. But in the last two years, I have discovered there has been a seismic shift in teen communication. They now rely on texting to send quick messages to touch base with friends throughout the day.
So why have emails fallen out of favor so fast with the younger set?
Well, you have to be online, usually at a computer, to have access to the internet. Some hand held devices like Blackberries and iPhones can give you access to your emails but you are paying a lot extra for that service. And sometimes when you open an email, the sender receives notification that you have seen it, so…
A few teens suggested that they see emails as being more adult-oriented. Their parents use them for work; schools send out official messages; and there’s way too much spam geared to older audiences. One mentioned she’s gets regular emails from her grandmother who expect newsy answers back in well-written English -- syntax, spelling et al. Ugh!
Which brings us to another point – texting uses a short-hand version of teen talk. At YAMI-U, the organizers passed out 2 pages of simplified text talk with the well-known “lol” for “laugh out loud,” but also including brb (be right back) and g2g (got to go). They favor lower case type “to save time.” Simplifying wordy sentences to express yourself succinctly is a key reason why text is so popular. Importantly, it only takes seconds, not minutes.
And it can be done in class under the teacher’s nose – literally. A number of students hide it under the desktop or a notebook and text away. Oh, did I mention text messaging is a widespread way of cheating? I’ve yet to hear a teen say they don’t think it exists in their school. I see more youth in a darkened movie theater sending out messages on faint-lit screens like lighters at a concert – except now audiences hold up their cell phones like they once held up candles and flashlights at Woodstock.
How much is text messaging used? At one high school, I was interviewing a Senior about this subject. Within the space of a few minutes, she answered three messages. When I asked how many she normally received in a day, she smirked and said she had already had 371. And it was only 11 am! Her boyfriend said he gets about 200 or so but that since he played baseball, he didn’t have as much time to text. I have heard other numbers but none were less than 75 daily (I think I am productive when I can answer 30-40 emails and send out 40-50). Email messaging it appears, is going the way of the dinosaur at least when young. In short, texting allows for very quick and snappy exchanges -- until they get older and need to communicate more complicated thoughts and feelings.
So how does this mode affect boyfriend/girlfriend relationships? Texting is used for love talk: <3 (heart) and 143 (I love you). As of this moment, there exists no way to text “I wanna have sex with you” but give that another couple of months. I was surprised to learn that even intimate phoning among lovers and sex partners has been surpassed by texting. A number of teens say they find open-ended calls problematic because “Who hangs up first?” One guy said he didn’t like being put on the spot by girls who insist he tells them, “I love you.” Yet he admitted that he does like talking to his gfs (girlfriends) on his cell in bed to get off before sleeping. That is pretty hard to do with acronym-based text but it is probably the way of the future. How soon before enterprising entrepreneurs with an eye to the youth market will come out with an online handbook for text talk? (Some cell phones are providing shortcuts like“T9,” etc.).
In a future blog, I’ll discuss teens communicating by Facebook, MySpace, Twittering and IM.
I’m going to buy a Blackberry and learn how to text proficiently if I can get my thumbs to hit the right keys. Over the next six months, TeenAIDS will be moving more into this sphere with a better interactive website that will increase our texting ability to stay in touch with PeerCorps teens and promoting global and local activism. Stay tuned.
OMG! I meant to type tbc (to be continued).
Monday, March 30, 2009
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Washington and YAMI U
It’s Saturday and the rain is starting. I am in Washington, D.C. for the Youth AIDS Media Institute (YAMI) pilot program to train young people in novel technological approaches. This amazing event relies on significant input from each participant in designing a national AIDS awareness program. I am chaperoning four of our PeerCorps youth, Megan Benevides, Peter Keto, Matt Hawkins and Chris Downs, all communications students from Fitchburg State College (you can view their pics and bios under "Weekly Volunteers"). The innovative training sessions are sponsored by Motorola Foundation and our funding partners in our 2007 and 2008 PSAs, Cable Positive and its Tony Cox Community Foundation.
Seventeen youth from New England, New York and Washington have come together three days ago for the week-long production workshop. Separated into four teams, our TeenAIDS volunteers are assigned to handle major tasks including writing, research, production and filming. As I write this blog, they are appearing in the PSA shoot that will air on cable stations later this year.
The youngest participant is 16 years old; the oldest is 24. The group is evenly divided among females/males with a few more high school students than college age. Racially and ethnically, it is a mixed group as well. After a getting-to-know-each-other period, they settled down to flush out the theme based on "There's no LOL in HIV" as the tag line to the campaign. But how to hook youth?
Eventually, they chose to use a graduation idea where youth are shown as typical yearbook entries. For example, "Best Dressed... except when it comes to wearing a condom" (featuring Matt); "Most Popular... until her partners found out they were infected" (Megan); and "Most Valued Player... too bad his helmut was his only protection" (Chris). Peter "starred" as the Emoticon (emote-icon) symbol with his legs in red tights!
A typical day starts with a group buffet breakfast and notices from the staffers. Then the teams break into small and intense discussions on these components: print; webcast; texting: and video. The work continues through evening with lunch and dinner breaks and plenty of laughs. it is no exaggeration to say these seventeen youth have bonded and will be texting for many months to come.
When asked what he thought about YAMI, Peter exclaimed, "Boss!" Megan described it as "... bringing AIDS education to a new technological level." Matt called it "An incredible experience." Chris said it was "An amazing opportunity." I am very proud of their contributions to the group effort.
Cable Positive’s Thomas Henning, Jennifer Medina Matsuki, Max Johnson, Patrice Armour and Parita Patel have done an incredible job putting together this major logistical event with the help of Motorola; “the watsons” (creative team); Look Alikes (filmmakers) and many other professionals.
Motorola Foundation donated $250,000 to fund the program and gave each youth a Krave ZN4, a multi-purpose phone to use and we have just learned, to keep! Zunita Henderson, Senior Manager, Account Marketing, made the announcement official. Together with Tavius Jackson, the two Motorola reps made sure that YAMI-U was given everything it needed to succeed. The students have been texting, shooting, accessing the internet and finding new ways to use these handheld devices. I wrote a White Paper for the Conference training manual that talks about how new, emerging technologies is rapidly replacing the old, tried and true communication modes (see link to YAMI).
I would like to thank the wait staff that served our meals and snacks at the Hilton Garden Inn: Denise Delaney and Gennaro Scotto di Luzio, both friendly and gracious people (note: their supervisor George Hummel should be proud).
Postscript: We had a brief sit-down meeting with Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts in the ornate Senate Russell Building on Capital Hill. He was interested in their work and was most gracious to have the Senate photographer take our group photo. Before the meeting, we visited the Lincoln and Vietnam Memorials. We also conducted interviews and outreach with scores of youth on the subject of teen thinking on AIDS vulnerability and how they communicate with friends (see my following blog for answers).
Seventeen youth from New England, New York and Washington have come together three days ago for the week-long production workshop. Separated into four teams, our TeenAIDS volunteers are assigned to handle major tasks including writing, research, production and filming. As I write this blog, they are appearing in the PSA shoot that will air on cable stations later this year.
The youngest participant is 16 years old; the oldest is 24. The group is evenly divided among females/males with a few more high school students than college age. Racially and ethnically, it is a mixed group as well. After a getting-to-know-each-other period, they settled down to flush out the theme based on "There's no LOL in HIV" as the tag line to the campaign. But how to hook youth?
Eventually, they chose to use a graduation idea where youth are shown as typical yearbook entries. For example, "Best Dressed... except when it comes to wearing a condom" (featuring Matt); "Most Popular... until her partners found out they were infected" (Megan); and "Most Valued Player... too bad his helmut was his only protection" (Chris). Peter "starred" as the Emoticon (emote-icon) symbol with his legs in red tights!
A typical day starts with a group buffet breakfast and notices from the staffers. Then the teams break into small and intense discussions on these components: print; webcast; texting: and video. The work continues through evening with lunch and dinner breaks and plenty of laughs. it is no exaggeration to say these seventeen youth have bonded and will be texting for many months to come.
When asked what he thought about YAMI, Peter exclaimed, "Boss!" Megan described it as "... bringing AIDS education to a new technological level." Matt called it "An incredible experience." Chris said it was "An amazing opportunity." I am very proud of their contributions to the group effort.
Cable Positive’s Thomas Henning, Jennifer Medina Matsuki, Max Johnson, Patrice Armour and Parita Patel have done an incredible job putting together this major logistical event with the help of Motorola; “the watsons” (creative team); Look Alikes (filmmakers) and many other professionals.
Motorola Foundation donated $250,000 to fund the program and gave each youth a Krave ZN4, a multi-purpose phone to use and we have just learned, to keep! Zunita Henderson, Senior Manager, Account Marketing, made the announcement official. Together with Tavius Jackson, the two Motorola reps made sure that YAMI-U was given everything it needed to succeed. The students have been texting, shooting, accessing the internet and finding new ways to use these handheld devices. I wrote a White Paper for the Conference training manual that talks about how new, emerging technologies is rapidly replacing the old, tried and true communication modes (see link to YAMI).
I would like to thank the wait staff that served our meals and snacks at the Hilton Garden Inn: Denise Delaney and Gennaro Scotto di Luzio, both friendly and gracious people (note: their supervisor George Hummel should be proud).
Postscript: We had a brief sit-down meeting with Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts in the ornate Senate Russell Building on Capital Hill. He was interested in their work and was most gracious to have the Senate photographer take our group photo. Before the meeting, we visited the Lincoln and Vietnam Memorials. We also conducted interviews and outreach with scores of youth on the subject of teen thinking on AIDS vulnerability and how they communicate with friends (see my following blog for answers).
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