article

Chatting with teenagers: Considering the place of chat technologies in teen life

Authors:

Rebecca E. Grinter,

Margery EldridgeAuthors Info & Claims

ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI), Volume 13, Issue 4

Pages 423 - 447

https://doi.org/10.1145/1188816.1188817

Published: 01 December 2006 Publication History

Abstract

In the last few years, teenagers have been on the forefront of adopting short message service (SMS), a mobile phone-based text messaging system, and instant messaging (IM), a computer-based text chat system. However, while teenage adoption of SMS had led to a series of studies examining the reasons for its popularity, IM use in the teenage population remains understudied. This omission becomes significant given the increasing interest in domestic computing among human-computer interaction (HCI) and computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW) researchers. Further, because of the dearth of empirical work on teenage use of IM, we find that IM and SMS are sometimes incorrectly assumed to share the same features of use. To address these concerns, we revisit our own studies of SMS and IM use and reexamine them in tandem with other published studies on teenage chat. We consider similarities and differences in styles of SMS and IM use and how chat technologies enable the pursuit of teenage independence. We examine how differences are born out of technological differences and financial cost structures. We discuss how SMS and IM are used in concert to provide increased awareness and to coordinate inter-household communications, and how privacy is regulated within the individual household as a means of maintaining these communications.

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Hamidi FEasley WHurst A(2023)A Quantitative Study of Youth Employees' Use of an Informal Chatting Tool at a Workforce Training Program2023 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE)10.1109/FIE58773.2023.10343221(01-08)Online publication date: 18-Oct-2023
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Index Terms

Chatting with teenagers: Considering the place of chat technologies in teen life
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Collaborative and social computing
    1. Collaborative and social computing theory, concepts and paradigms
      1. Computer supported cooperative work
2. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Computing and business
      1. Computer supported cooperative work

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cover image ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction

ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction Volume 13, Issue 4

December 2006

160 pages

ISSN:1073-0516

EISSN:1557-7325

DOI:10.1145/1188816

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Copyright © 2006 ACM.

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 01 December 2006

Published in TOCHI Volume 13, Issue 4

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Easley WHurst AMentis HHamidi F(2023)Youths' Usage of an Informal Chatting Tool in an After-school 3D Print ShopProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/35795947:CSCW1(1-20)Online publication date: 16-Apr-2023
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Hamidi FEasley WHurst A(2023)A Quantitative Study of Youth Employees' Use of an Informal Chatting Tool at a Workforce Training Program2023 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE)10.1109/FIE58773.2023.10343221(01-08)Online publication date: 18-Oct-2023
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