The generation gap:Managing technology-mediated personal social networks

Keeping in touch with family and friends should be easier now that we have a repertoire of communication tools available to us (e.g. SMS, IM, email, mobile and landline phones). And yet many of us continue to find it difficult to maintain and manage our personal contacts. Why is this so? This paper describes a study that looked at how a range of different social groups manage their personal networks and what types of technology-mediated communication tools they use. A key finding was a ‘generation gap’; teenagers have quite different communication patterns than people of their parents’ age and older. ADSL users were also found to have developed quite different ways of communicating. We discuss our findings in terms of how to more effectively support people to manage multiple modes of communication.