Among the many interesting insights was one I felt compelled to share some more insight on and that is this simple statement by the student we profiled “I hate email.”
Why does she hate email?
Put simply, it doesn’t do enough. For her (and most college students), multi-tasking is the top priority. With Twitter skyrocketing in popularity amongst college students and Facebook still their home base, it’s no wonder that many find themselves utilizing applications like TweetDeck which allow them to consolidate their interaction spheres into one convenient and accessibly platform.
In fact, the student joked that she only uses her email to “communicate with her boss (at Off Campus Media) and adults.” She uses Facebook as her preferred method of peer-to-peer communication – she has had a Facebook thread running between the three of them for three years now.
Can we blame her? Email is relatively limited in its functionality, even platforms like Gmail which support a chat function will never be the “homebase” that Facebook is for many of its Gen Y users. With so much activity from those she cares to interact with most (friends and family), why would she go anywhere else?
Maybe Google Wave will catch on.
5 Comments
Just wait until they hit the workforce. Good luck trying to send that PDF attachment through Twitter, or trying to outline a strategy for something in 140 characters.
Twitter: marksawyier
Very good point, Jeffry. The student we profiled did say that they use email for work purposes but is interesting to see how much this particular student tries to shy away from email – who knows, maybe that’s the next step for social media platforms?
Thanks for your post Mark-and how useful now or in the future do you and your team judge Google Wave helpful in your new business “OffCampus Media”?
Twitter: marksawyier
Thanks for the feedback, John! I think Google Wave has a lot of potential and can be an excellent platform to facilitate “mobile computing” in terms of one’s ability to access a host of free applications with an Internet connection. Although Google is mighty, I don’t feel its applications presently have the same power as those of its predecessors – that’s not to say they won’t get there, just not there yet (in my view).
Yeah, I thought the not liking e-mail was interesting to think about as an in college vs working at a job situation. I run my own company, of mostly a gen y team, so we have access to facebook, BUT so many employers block it – that once in a 9-5 environment its seems like opinions might change.