Generation Y Prefer Email and Texting Over Social Networks
By Anna Johnson on October 29th, 2009Generation Y may spend slightly more time on social networks, but when asked what they would least like to give up for one week, only nine percent said social networks, while 26 percent said email, and 26 percent said texting.
These are the findings of an October 2009 survey of 203 people aged 18-24 years conducted by the Participatory Marketing Network (PMN) and Pace University’s Lubin School of Business’ IDM Lab.
According to Michael Della Penna, PMN co-founder and Executive Chairman:
“As long as email remains the collection point for social networking updates, including alerts around new followers, discussion updates and friend requests, it will remain a powerful force in marketing and our lives.”
Here are the key findings of PMN’s survey:
- Gen Y’ers are least likely to give up email (26 percent) and text messaging (26 percent) for a week, followed by TV (15 percent), talking on phone (11 percent), visiting social networks (nine percent), reading magazines (seven percent) and visiting non social network sites (six percent).
- The average time spent on social networks per month is 33 hours, compared to 31 hours for email.
- On average, members of Generation Y send over 740 text messages per month.
- Gen Y spend more time emailing, texting and social networking online than talking on the phone, watching TV or reading magazines.
- Only 20 percent of Generation Y receive targeted marketing messages on their mobile telephone devices, with only four percent intending to do so in the future.
