I’m just about to wrap up my seventh year of teaching, and I’m amazed at how fast youth culture is shifting. I guess I really am getting old.
But my thinning hair line aside, this infographic from the fine people of Youth Ministry Media provides a nice glimpse of how teenagers communicate today…until it all changes tomorrow.
[Click for Larger]
Frankly, I’m constantly amazed at how YouTube has become more than just a video hosting site. It’s truly become an actual platform for interaction and communication. However, what really amazed me about this was how strong e-mail was! Anecdotally, one of the biggest problems I deal with is that my students don’t have e-mail addresses! I don’t know who these students are who are still using e-mail, but they seem to be a rare breed in my experience.
Clearly, I need to maximize my use of YouTube and e-mail when dealing with my students. My failure to use these two very important communication platforms could really be holding me back.
What does this info graphic tell you about your use of social media? Do you find any of it hard to believe?
[via Youth Ministry Media | HT Todd Rhoades & Ed Stetzer]
Mark Sandlin says
AWeber is an email list management company (I use them for my list). I wouldn’t be surprised to find the results are too heavily skewed towards email.
Phil Schneider says
Ooh. That is a good point, Mark! Thanks for pointing that out!
Jeff Abramovitz says
I’d be interested in finding out a little more about the email number. That was what surprised me the most. All the data I hear is that teens/youth hardly ever use email. I’m not a believer that email is going away anytime soon but I do think that it seems high here in this study. But, if accurate would be a very interesting conversation in the social media realm (where I traffic as a consultant) because it would refute much of what is said about that age group and email. Thanks for posting.
Phil Schneider says
I agree, Jeff, email seems a bit over-emphasized here. That’s what really shocked me, and I think that Mark’s comment might help explain why.