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How many buddies?

If you’ve noticed, keyboards are one of the most popular features on the new cell phones. Phone manufacturers are finding ways to pack bigger keyboards into smaller phones.

It seems this doesn’t have much to do with fat fingers, either. Kids want keyboards, too.

According to a report by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, no more than 5% of 12 to 17 year olds opt for email over instant messaging as their preferred mode of digital communication.
Believe it or not, the kids say email is the way they talk to “old people,” companies and institutions.

Some teens have as many seven screen names. With their bulging IM buddy lists, they can easily manage a handful of conversations at the same time no matter the time of day or where they are––even in class!

The Pew study also reports that the “popularity of email and intensity of its use is waning,” against the rising tide of instant messaging.
Whether on a PC or a cell phone, IM makes it even easier to stay connected wherever we are at the moment.

There may be an upside to all this at least for parents. Remember the ads, “It’s 10 o’clock. Do you know where your kids are?” With GPS on cell phones, the problem’s solved.

When that happens, you’ll hear the time-honored complaint, “Don’t you trust me?” But as President Reagan was fond of saying, “Trust, but verify.” And that may be just the time IM comes in handy.

Tom is president of Mosinee Insurance Agency,
Inc. 715-693-2100;
tomh@mosineeins.com

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