October 17, 2003
American Teens: Stupid or Spoiled?
Douglas Rushkoff for TheFeature.com compares the factors motivating US and UK teenagers to replace their handsets.
The main reason in the UK, according to Rushkoff, is that local phone calls are expensive and access to the Internet is not as prevelent as in the US.
"It's not that American kids don't have cell phones. They do. It's just that they don't have the same need to use their phones for activities that are already being satisfied better elsewhere. After a couple of hours of free instant messaging on the computer every day after school, how much of an appetite could they possibly have for sms, photos or none, late into the night? "
On a personal note, where I live (Switzerland) and from what I see with my fourteen year old son and his friends, they do it all. Watch TV, play video games, listen to music, surf the Net, send e-mail, I.M and send text messages when at home. This seems to all be going on at the same time. They seem insatiable to all these forms of entertainment and communication. And on the go, when they are not at home, they SMS, from town which they are drawn to like magnets, and even from school where they blind-text under their desk at lightening speed. In case you're wondering, my son even has time to do his homework, grades are good and he loves to play tennis and football (soccer).
Related articles previously posted on Textually.org:
-- Why Text Messaging is not popular in the US
-- Top Ten Uses For SMS in the US
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