I got in late from golf^H^H^H^Han important business meeting, and all the dinner tables were filled except for the kids table. I had a very enjoyable dinner with about 7 14-year-olds. What was really nice was that for the most part these kids were mature and extremely smart.

To pretend I was working, I polled them for their technology habits. As expected, they were all quite computer literate, and used their computers (mostly Macs) a lot for school and play. However, I found a couple of surprising things.

One was that they all use AIM for instant messaging, without fail. Another was that none of them use email, at all. They all had cellphones, and considered them much more important than their computers. They do some SMS, but consider it too hard for real conversations, and mostly just call their friends, leaving voicemail if they need to. They do play computer games, and sometimes get really into them, but then the interest fades as they get into other things.

Not a scientific sample, at all, but I was surprised that for them IM and cellphones had made email irrelevant.

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