Boomers had it pretty simple back in their youth. Want to connect with your friends? Write them a letter, give them a call or go and see them.
Gen X-ers had a little more fun. They could’ve emailed each other over 28.8 or used their pagers to send 1-sentence messages back and forth.
Here’s what Generation Y uses to stay in touch.
To an outsider, it can be a confusing to understand how Gen Y uses those channels just to talk to each other. After all, Boomers just had three channels and they made friends just fine.
To put things in context, here’s what my communication habits are like and how I use the above.
Looking at that chart makes me envy my father’s generation. They didn’t have to worry about drunk texts. Or having personal information all over the internet.
Honourable mentions for Blackberry PINs and Twitter.
June 16, 2008 on 11:51 pm
I think that for Gen Y texting would be equivalent to both the beeper and the email for Gen X. I utilize text messaging because I feel it is more efficient. I am able to text a friend to see if they are coming over later and it only takes a couple seconds where as calling them would take minutes, especially if they want to talk.
June 17, 2008 on 11:09 pm
Fantastic post! I love the charts.
Hilarious point about “drunken texts.” I think “drunk dial” is a term coined by our generation…
June 21, 2008 on 9:06 pm
Love it! I’m the tail end of Gen-X, beginning of Y… I get the angst of both.
June 24, 2008 on 3:39 pm
I love the graphs! I do think that it wasn’t necessarily easier three generations ago, just fewer options… And I am a big proponent of more face-to-face time. If it’s really urgent, that is my go-to method because I’ll be able to get a response right away – people can always ignore a text or phone call.
June 27, 2008 on 10:54 pm
Hello! I found your blog and I’ve gotta say, I love your perspective on things. I think my preferred method of communication is email, since I like to see what I’m saying and I can think about how I want to word things. And from a business standpoint, everything is recorded, so I can go back and quote them word for word if necessary. On the social front, friends actually get annoyed that I treat my cellphone like a land line, ie: it’s not glued to my side. I just joined the Facebook bandwagon though, we’ll see how that goes.
August 3, 2008 on 7:52 pm
[...] to catch-up on Gen Y? check out: A look at how Gen Y communicates, Gen Y and 3D worlds and The Secrets of Iconography-know who their heroes are. Possibly related [...]
August 27, 2008 on 9:26 am
David Fallarme’s Look At Marketing to Gen Y…
I read a great article from The Marketing Student that covered how Generation Y is changing marketing and I’d like to expand a bit on David’s ideas.
First, a quick rundown of David’s concepts (Full Article Here). David graphed the co…
September 18, 2008 on 10:59 am
[...] [via TheMarketingStudent] by David Fallarme [...]
September 18, 2008 on 11:02 am
great visual – it should be present in many a board room.
October 31, 2008 on 9:38 am
I love these graphics. Great posts.
Another consideration amongst the generations, too, is that the older the generation you find that people want to be communicate BACK to by the same mechanism is was created. Make sense?
We have a tendency (Gen Y’s that is) to go in and out of all these mechanism for a conversation and connect the dots along the way. But Boomers prefers for “replies” to be on the same channel they were using before. So they left you a VM, they’d prefer a phone call even though they might be on instant messenger.
November 1, 2008 on 9:02 pm
This is absolutely brilliant! Thanks for the interesting read. As others said, the visuals are great.
November 19, 2008 on 11:53 am
Insightful post Dave.
Where did you gather the information for these charts?
December 30, 2008 on 3:55 pm
Depends on how nerdy you are. Gen X did IRC and ICQ chat before Gen Y was old enough to use any chat tools.
One difference I’ve noticed from personal observation is that boomers and older Gen Xers will have at most two of these “channels” open simultaneously.
But get a bunch of Gen Ys in a room and you have modes going full-force at the same time. It looks very chaotic to older generations.
December 30, 2008 on 4:18 pm
I think one thing you missed on this is the Gen Y tendency to want to communicate with more people at the same time. My daughter and her friends think nothing of stopping a live conversation to respond to a text. So, it isn’t fully a matter of “urgency” any more.
December 30, 2008 on 4:24 pm
Love the charts…great as a snap shot for those of us that are totally visual.
Great communication has always been challenging even when there was only three channels. Today, the various channels offer more communication options but not sure it is better communication.
I still love to meet in person over lunch and talk on the phone. I do use all the available channels often simultaneously but I find it often lacking in texture.
Amelia Brazell
December 30, 2008 on 4:26 pm
Great insight. There is a lot more communication going on now than in the boomer days!
One question I would raise: is the phone call more immediate than the text message? I would say that Gen Y seems to use them in the opposite fashion: texting is the most immediate and urgent, phone call 2nd most.
I think this is because a text message is short, does not require a conversation require additional pleasantries. A phone call is only more immediate if you can reach someone on a voice call more immediately than you can reach them via text message, and I don’t think that’s true with Gen Y.
I love the way you’ve framed this – great perspective & thanks for sharing
Eric
December 30, 2008 on 5:16 pm
Tanner, it’s his own use (“here’s what my communication habits are like and how I use the above.”) though a study done like that would be a nice thing indeed.
Nice article. As a tweener splitting the boomers and gen x, it’s fun to keep up with the Gen Y crowd and then have a younger friend say “Wait, YOU’RE on facebook?!”
December 30, 2008 on 7:06 pm
I love these generation *blank* posts because I’m fascinated by the subject. Being born at the very end of the 70′s, I fall right at the latter part of the generation X area. So I’ve had the privileged to grow up with the 28.8 communication, and yet am still young and enjoying the latest ways to connect.
Thanks for displaying great visuals to bring you point out in a clear, engaging fashion. Eric.
December 31, 2008 on 1:26 pm
This is spot on! Thanks for your insight. Shann
February 26, 2009 on 5:00 pm
[...] purpose and clarity than we can off-line. Take a look as one member of Gen-Y graphs out his communication habits, showing us that, for Gen-Y, only the most urgent situations require a face-to-face [...]
March 3, 2009 on 7:22 am
I’d argue that most 15-25s use facebook more regularly than email – most check email once a day unless expecting something, but facebook is opened a lot more than that, and for longer at a time.
August 20, 2009 on 7:24 am
Great insight. As a boomer, Ive seen these changes. I resisted at first,but now I enjoy the flexibility of comunications that are now here.These new techs allow one to connect to the world and friends.Now,when I dont know what to do, I know what to do.
September 8, 2009 on 10:45 am
[...] staff and faculty members communicate with each other and the outside world. Check out this article from http://www.themarketingstudent.com for more [...]
October 15, 2009 on 4:00 pm
Great article I am going to be adding this info into my marketing plan… have a great day and keep the insightful info coming…
November 18, 2009 on 2:53 am
[...] staff and faculty members communicate with each other and the outside world. Check out this article from http://www.themarketingstudent.com for more [...]
June 27, 2010 on 2:11 pm
Hello! I found your blog and I’ve gotta say, I love your perspective on things. I think my preferred method of communication is email, since I like to see what I’m saying and I can think about how I want to word things. And from a business standpoint, everything is recorded, so I can go back and quote them word for word if necessary. On the social front, friends actually get annoyed that I treat my cellphone like a land line, ie: it’s not glued to my side. I just joined the Facebook bandwagon though, we’ll see how that goes.
+1