Old vs Young: The New Digital Divide

For some here, technologies such as Instant Messaging are a relatively recent novelty, the latest addition to a string of new technologies that have been steadily marching across our desks for over 20 years.  For others, the idea of a world without IM, without the World Wide Web, without cell phones is unimaginable.  A major digital divide is forming between current teens and their parents, with current teenagers not knowing a world before the Internet, before word processing and instant global communication.  Adults, for whom items like IM are a relatively new fad, often have trouble understanding teens dependence on technology, their surgical attachment to cell phones, and a compulsive need to check email every few minutes.

Someone who is 16 today was born in 1990, two years before the World Wide Web came about, but a full 6 years after the launch of the modern Personal Computer (the Apple Macintosh in 1984).  So for all of their life as far back as they can remember they've had the Internet, it's just something that's always been there. 

CNN talks about a recent poll conducted by the Associated Press regarding the difference in attitudes and Instant Messenger user between teens and adults.  The results?

• Almost 3/4 of all adults who use IM still communicate via email more often.
• Almost 3/4 of all teens use IM more than email to communicate.
• Teens (30%) are almost twice as likely as adults (17%) to say they can't imagine life without IM

Of course, the story mentions that age doesn't mean you don't "get it" or aren't "hip to the things kids these days dig" and that many adults are embracing new technology and getting hooked.