Teens See Email as for the Old Folks

Email is for grown-ups and US teenagers now prefer instant messaging (IM) to communicate with each other online, according to a survey released this week.

Internet users from the ages of 12 to 17 say e-mail is best for talking to parents or institutions, but they are more likely to fire up IM when talking to each other, the nonprofit Pew Internet and American Life Project found.

Email is still used by 90 percent of online teens but the survey found greater enthusiasm for instant messaging.

Three-quarters of teen Internet users use instant messaging, compared with 42 percent of adults, Pew said. Nearly half of teens said they exchanged IMs daily, and some said they spent more than two hours each day using instant-messenger programs.

Half or nearly half of the 1,100 teenagers surveyed said they used IM to send web links or photos to each other, while nearly one-third said they had sent music or video clips over IM.

Adults were much less likely to do any of those things, the survey found. (from Reuters)