I found a couple of recent short articles today relating to the change in the communication habits of teens, mostly a movement reporting the end of telephony and the move toward a preference for instant messaging (IM).

First, “Teens Turn from Phones to the Net” (Globe and Mail) features a report from Ipsos Reid which found that “home phone and instant messaging are virtually tied as teens’ favoured means of communication, at 45 per cent and 44 per cent respectively.” Additionally, there seems to be a huge decline in email use, and cellphone use has still not made much of an impact for the most part.

An experience that partially supports this idea is documented by the article “End of Email in Korea” which reports the continued growth of IM by teens, but also a growth in mobile messaging. Of course, cell phone use by teens seem much more prevalent in Korea than in North America, at least in this instance.

It’s interesting to see where this will lead. I can see the benefits of IM and SMS, but I often wonder what would happen if the telephone would have been introduced after IM had already been the communication choice of the previous generation. It’s certainly a different world.