Will Young People’s Online Habits Change as They Age?

Right now young people rely heavily on text messaging, Twitter, Facebook, etc, instead of email, to communicate.  But as they get older will this change?  The “father of the internet” Vint Cerf expects:

today’s young people to change their behavior as they age because they’ll be maintaining different kinds of relationships then than they do now. In high school and college, young people are usually communicating with peers who are nearby and living lives with similar patterns, but as they all move into adulthood, their lives will scatter and diverge in ways that often make delayed/deferred communications more useful than immediate communications. In other words, IM’ing is great when you’re gossipping with classmates, but email may be better when you’re catching up with that friend across the country who suddenly has three kids under the age of five.

For groups hoping to maintain relationships with young people as they age out of college, start families or enter the workforce, it may be worth tracking whether aging youth’s modes of communications change over time.