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“Text me, don’t call me.” Sounds familiar?

Have you ever come across people that you’ve tried calling and emailing for hours but failed to receive any response from them? However, when you text them, they almost immediately reply.

To be honest, I’m not that big on texting; with an average of about 300 plus texts per month. This number is miniscule compared to my 19 year old sister who averages about 1,000 plus texts per month. Compared to her fellow friends, she is not unusual at all.

According to Nielsen Mobile, in the first quarter of 2009, the average U.S teenager made and received an average of 191 phone calls and sent and received 2,899 text messages every month. By the third quarter, the number of texts jumped to a whopping 3,146 messages per month. This is equivalent to more than 10 text messages per hour.

At the beginning of 2007, these numbers were only 255 phone calls and 435 text messages. Preteens on the other hand, receive about 1,146 texts every month.

It’s really rare to see my sister to answer her phone because she rather converse through text messaging. In the house, none of my 3 sisters and I picks up the house phone when it rings; only left it to my mom and dad. Because, we know that if we were to be contacted, it would be through our mobile phones instead.

We are in the midst of four distinct generations: Baby Boomers (born 1946-64), Generation X (1965-79), Net Generation (1980-89) and the new iGeneration (born in the 1990s and beyond). The “i” designation represents the “individualized” nature of their media.

The word “communicate” means to talk face-to-face or on the phone but until recently, the Net Generation and the iGeneration have turned this concept of communication upside down. Nowadays, it’s all about texting, IMing, Facebook texting, Skyping; pretty much anything but talking on the phone.

Alarming as this may sound, but people must recognize that this is the new way and it’ll be here to stay; or until at least the next new form of e-communication bursts into our world.

Sure that the Net Generation was the early adopters of the Internet but the iGeneration are of a different breed. They know no other world than of the Web, texting and social networking. They rather go online when they could sit and chat with their grandparents. They live in their own bedroom, where new technologies appear and penetrate society in months rather than years.

Technology for this generation is not a tool, but a part of life. I still do text but probably I should do it more often to keep up with the younger generation. I’m still amazed when my 5 year old sister already started surfing the Web.

What kind of impact could the iGeneration bring about? We would love to hear your thoughts and opinions on this article!

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