Screenagers: n. A term that combines two words to describe “teenagers who are online” and who are “always looking at the screen.” See also: generation Y, mouse potato, today’s college student
Do you know how to best communicate with college students? Better yet, do you know how they prefer that you communicate with them? If you guessed “by text message,” you would be correct.
A recent focus group study of young adults between the ages of 16 and 24 posed the question of how they most like to receive communication. In order, the top eight preferred methods include:
1. Text messaging
2. Internet (i.e. MySpace or Facebook)
3. iPods and Podcasts
4. Instant messaging
5. Cell phone
6. DVD / CD
7. Books
8. Email
Dr. Tim Elmore, Founder and President of Growing Leaders, Inc., notes that not only is email the eighth item on the list, but suggests that these findings say a lot about the nature of this generation:
Students today are inundated with messages, from every side. I believe they’re most likely to respond to a text message because it allows them fast, current, relevant communication with friends—but at a safe distance. They like intimacy without a lot of vulnerability. It sounds like a paradox and perhaps it is. I believe this is but one of several paradoxes that exist among Generation Y.