teenagers using messengers in Australia

These are some sense coped in "Teens, tech and getting connected-Technology-smh.com.au"


Notes have been replaced by SMS, teenagers can now call their friends from anywhere with a mobile phone and the only writing they do is in the form of an email or instant message.

Teenagers today have an impressive array of methods for keeping in touch. The most ubiquitous of these is the mobile phone. A business and social tool for most people, it is considered practically a body part by most teenagers - something that's impossible to leave home without.

"Teenagers are embracing language as their own communications tool," Mr Barber says. "They've developed their own language."

Ms Huntley says Generation Y-ers become impatient if they can't get through to someone. "They think 10 minutes is too long to wait for a return text," Ms Huntley says.

A Yahoo! study found that 64 per cent of Australian teenagers use instant messaging at least once a day. And a survey of 4328 Australian internet users by ninemsn last year found that 95 per cent of 12 to 17-year-olds used its MSN Messenger service at least a few times a week.

Ms Huntley says "It's easier to say things on a screen than face to face. It's also easier to offend people online. Chatting on Messenger is the technological equivalent of passing notes around the class."

Chatting on MSN Messenger also ranks highly on Casey's daily agenda. "I have 165 contacts in my Messenger, which includes everyone in my year at school," Casey Mrocki says. "I can be having up to 20 convos (conversations) at once."

Casey spends an hour online every night chatting to his friends, mostly about school, homework and the weekend. Not all of his friends are as chatty, having removed Messenger from their PCs at the start of year 11 to stop the constant interruptions and focus on their studies.

While he doesn't blog, Casey says some of his classmates use it to get photos online quickly. "We can go to a party one night and the next day someone will have uploaded all the photos onto their blog."

Reference: June 1, 2006 Teens, tech and getting connected-Technology-smh.com.au, http://www.smh.com.au/news/technology/teens-tech-and-getting-connected/2006/05/31/1148956356779.html

Posed by Henry