Divide within generations caused by technology

People two,three or four years apart are having completely different experiences with technology, said Lee Rainie,director of the Pew Research Centers Internet and American Life Project. College students scratch their heads at what their high school siblings are doing,and they scratch their heads at their younger siblings. It has sped up generational differences.

These mini-generation gaps are most visible in the communication and entertainment choices. According to a survey last year by Pew,teenagers are more likely to send instant messages than slightly older 20-somethings 68 per cent versus 59 per cent and to play online games 78 per cent versus 50 per cent.

Larry Rosen,a professor of psychology and the author of Rewired: Understanding the iGeneration and the Way They Learn,has also drawn this distinction between what he calls the Net Generation,born in the 1980s,and the iGeneration,born in the 90s and this decade. Now in their 20s,those in the Net Generation,according to Rosen,spend two hours a day talking on the phone and still use e-mail. The iGeneration spends more time texting than talking on the phone,pays less attention to television and tends to communicate more over instant-messenger networks.

The boom of kid-focused virtual worlds and online games especially intrigues Mizuko Ito,a associate researcher at the University of California Humanities Research Institute. Dr Ito said that children who play these games would see less of a distinction between their online friends and real friends.