Comments on: Is Email Adults-Only Territory?

By: Zach

Zach — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 00:45:10 +0000

I’m in High School, and use Email heavily.

I’m in an extra-curricular activity called Science Olympiad, and since we are all techies we use email to communicate within the team.

I don’t just use it for that either. For me its useful just for general conversation, and sending files back and forth between people.

By: lespaul20

lespaul20 — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 22:29:20 +0000

I agree that a Job has a lot to do with it. It’s definitely not a generational thing per se, but rather a raw age thing. College students, for example, probably use email for group projects and school related things rather than facebook. I don’t think it’s really an age think but more of a task/situation thing.

By: SupaChalupa

SupaChalupa — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 20:17:04 +0000

I am not a fan of Gmail. I prefer good old Hotmail, not saying its better (I like hotmail’s user interface better) but that is just my personal preference. I honestly don’t see Gmail as any easier to use than any other web-based mail client.

By: Rich Menga

Rich Menga — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 19:07:08 +0000

Business use is a strong factor on whether people in general will or won’t use email. It is a strong truth that business absolutely cannot run on social networking and/or IM because an independent messaging system (email) must be present for proper text-based communication.

It’s almost as if email is what you “mature” to after you reach a certain age. And yes, the subject is definitely worth a study or two.

By: Bryan Gulley

Bryan Gulley — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 17:59:15 +0000

I have found that a lot of this has to do with having a job that uses e-mail. When you think about it most people under 25 are waiters, in retail, or work at fast food joints. No need for e-mail. There surfing habits are youtube, twitter, facebook, ect. People under 25 are in some sort of school or they are working in the service industry. Again no need for e-mail.

Once you graduate from college and get into a more office environment presto you are versed in outlook. You have a work e-mail account. You may not have gmail, or hotmail, but you have at least been exposed to independant e-mail and you start using it.

This is my theory anyway. It might be a good study to conduct.

By: Darren Singleton

Darren Singleton — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 17:23:52 +0000

I’m coming up for 23 at the moment and from being around 16 years old have performed majority of my online communications via email. Some of this is shifting towards Facebook, but that is only because the friends I keep in touch with prefer that system over email itself.

I even find that when using Twitter, I will be requested to send people emails with further information – but this is generally down to the 140 character limit imposed.

I think email, especially now with GMail, is such a simple system to use and although it is generally used as part of the Google Mail website, the people you are communicating with can be doing so from hundreds if not thousands of different systems from around the net.

Just to summarize – I’m a soon-to-be 23 year old male who prefers email over any other online communication method!

By: Doug

Doug — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 16:36:26 +0000

I’ve worked with a number of Youth Pastors and all have indicated that email does not reach this segment. Most youth communicate through text messages, IM, Facebook, etc. It has been this way for a couple of years now.

By: Rich Menga

Rich Menga — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 16:28:21 +0000

You are a fine example for others in your peer group. Go tell them to get off Facebook please. Say that I sent you.

By: Rich Menga

Rich Menga — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 16:25:25 +0000

I find Twitter decent as long as I’m using a client like Twhirl. In fact I hated Twitter until I found a client I liked because otherwise it was too “tied” to the browser for me. Were it not for a Twitter client, I wouldn’t use it at all.

By: Rich Menga

Rich Menga — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 16:21:50 +0000

Suggestion: Tell her to use the SMS email address on her cell phone and watch how agreeable she will be because a huge chunk of the under-25 club lives and dies by cell phones.

A list of all the SMS addresses per provider are here http://freesms.1888usa.com/

For Tracfone you can hunt down the provider here http://freesms.1888usa.com/revcell.htm

Best of luck.