2004/10/07
Instant Messaging in Teen Life
Rebecca E. Grinter and Leysia Palen
- Published in: CSCW 02
- Relevant to: 5244 session on new media
- Printed, highlighted
16 teenagers were studied for their use of IM. Notable things from this survey include:
- differences between dorm use and earlier, home-based use in terms of connectivity and thus whether being online is a active decision or not. E.g., for teens at home, connecting is a conscious decision and often really does mean that the person is available to chat. This is related in the study to using different customizable strings for showing unavailability.
- Blocking a person results "unavailable" and thus is undistinguishable from actually not being available. This has social implications in shutting out unwanteds from a clique.
- is easily copiable and forwardable like email, forcing chatters to be aware that their conversations might be forwarded outside of the chat. Prefer phone or other harder to track technologies for sensitive correspondence.
- IM interface can be improved as several participants wrote in the wrong IM window, sometimes causing embarassment.
- Used by teens to gossip, coordinate events (especially helpful here) and to do collaboration (on schoolwork).
- Email, phone used to coordinate IM sessions in some way.
- Somehow complementary to SMS. IM used more in the US where SMS isn't widely used.
