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Report on Communicating With Others
Smart girls decide for themselves™.
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There are many different forms of communication available throughout the world and new methods being discovered all the time. SmartGirls like to communicate in all sorts of ways. Check out the results!
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Smartgirls from all across the world took this communication survey and of those that responded, 194 were girls and 4 were boys. The youngest participant was 7, and 6 of the respondents were 22 or older. The pie chart below provides the distribution of birth order of those who took the survey. An overwhelming number happen to be the oldest child and the other birth orders were more evenly distributed.
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| In your family you are: |
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| Almost half of the respondents were the oldest! |
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SmartGirls come from all over the world. Many are from the United States, Canada, Britain, Ireland, China, and Malaysia! The vast majority of respondents were from the U.S. (128). England (20) and Canada (14) were also well represented.
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Smartgirls communicate in so many different ways. The results indicate that most of the respondents have their own email address (181) and screennames (131), and many have cell phones (145) or personal phone lines (29). The most popular form of communication was the computer (69), however, interestingly, less people communicate in person (55) compared with those who use the computer. Surprisingly, using regular mail is outdated, as not one person responded to using this form of communication the most often.
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| What source do you use most often to communicate with others? |
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| More SmartGirls communicate through the computer than in person! |
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Most respondents use the internet in the evening (136) or afternoon (53), and many use the internet at least a few times a week (91). Some of you even use the internet a few times a day (82)!
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There are many different uses for the internet, so we were interested in finding out what SmartGirls were doing online. It seems that you use email (161), instant messaging programs like AIM or MSN (136), and social networking programs like facebook or Myspace (115) more than anything else. Most of you use internet communication to chat with friends (191), and some of you use it to meet new people (54) or find out more about someone you just met (63).
Since most of you use the internet to chat, we wanted to know a little more about who you talk to and what you talk about. Most of the respondents chat with friends (182)or family (108), and a lot of respondents keep in touch with long-distance friends (120) this way.
Internet communication leads to "internet speak." These are a few of the most common abbreviations the respondents use: lol (laugh out loud), omg (oh my God), brb (be right back), and ttyl (talk to you later).
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| What topics do you talk about online? |
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| SmartGirls talk about a lot of different things! |
We wanted to know how you feel about using the internet for communication, so we asked you to tell us what you thought were the greatest advantages and disadvantages of this form of communication.
These are the biggest advantages you gave: it is fast (131), you can think about what you want to say (129), you can use it anytime (109), and you can talk about anything (100).
The internet is not without disadvantages though. These are the most common disadvantages SmartGirls listed: it can lead to misunderstandings (138), you have to wait for a reply (117), and there are no physical cues (like eye contact) from the other person (85).
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We were interested in different ways the SmartGirls communicate, like on the phone or through the mail.
Many of the respondents said they talk on the phone a few times a day (85) or a few times a week (86). Only 17 respondents said they rarely talk on the phone, and 1 participant never talks on the phone!
The graph below indicates that school, friends, family, and general problems seem to be the most talked about topics on the phone. The least talked about topic was sports.
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| What topics do you talk about on the phone? |
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| There are lots of things to talk about on the phone! |
It seems that writing letters is a thing of the past. The majority of you rarely or never write letters (132). It is nice to use email instead of the regular mail. It is much faster, and you don't have to pay postage. However, I think it is still nice to send birthday cards or thank-you notes through the mail.
Similar to the phone responses, the most talked about topics were friends, family, and school. However, people did not prefer to talk about their problems or issues in letters. Perhaps this means that the respondents need answers to their problems faster by means of email or telephone.
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| What topics do you write about in letters? |
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| When SmartGirls do write letters, they have a lot to write about! |
There are many different people you can talk to, and you feel more comfortable talking to some than others. The vast majority of respondents feel most comfortable talking to friends or a boyfriend/girlfriend (151). Some of you feel most comfortable talking to members of your family, like brothers or sisters (14) or parents (20).
You would think that most people would prefer to communicate in person, however, the graph below shows that almost just as many smartgirls feel comfortable using the computer to communicate. In addition, it appears that the computer has become a more likely option to communicate compared to the phone.
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| What source do you feel most comfortable using to talk to others. |
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| Even though the computer and phone are convenient, most people still prefer talking in person. |
When it comes to talking to members of the opposite sex, respondents become a little more shy. Just as many respondents prefer to talk on the computer as those who prefer to talk in person (82).
But when it comes to privacy, most of you feel that talking in person (72) provides more security than talking on the phone (24) or online (49). It's important to have a trusting relationship with those who you communicate with online or on the phone to insure your privacy.
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The way we communicate is always changing. Long ago, you could only communicate through letters. Now we can communicate through mediums like letters, email, phones, the internet, or texting. Here are what some of you think the future of communication will be like:
~I think Skype and other video-calling technology will become more prevalent. To be honest, I can't keep up with communication technology and high-tech phones these days - bring back good old snail mail!
~I think that they will have a cell phone where you can see who you are talking to.
~Maybe you will be able to talk online but also see the person's face, like a webcam but live, more advanced. It's scary to think about. I think we will meet fewer and fewer times in person, which is weird to me.
~I think that in the future people will be able to communicate with special chips inserted into each other that they will be able to control with their brain.
~In the future, I think people will have holographic screens that show your face to the person you're talking to, and show the face of the person you're talking to to you. It will have speakers that record what you say, and immediately relay your voice and facial expressions to the person on the other line. It will be like a hand-held video phone. I think if that is accomplished, it will be really cool because instead of just talking on the phone and hearing what other people say you can see them.
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When comparing age groups for overall internet use, it appears that the 12-15 year old age bracket uses it the most, going online many times a day. However, the majority of people that responded to this survey were between this age group. If there were more people within the other age groups that took this survey, maybe we would have a stronger argument that 12-15 year olds use the internet the most. On an interesting side note, with all age groups combined, only four people responded that they never go online so it appears that most people find it important to be connected!
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| Age and internet use |
age
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6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22+ [22] | no answer [0] | [row totals] |
useinternet
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| many |
| 1 | | | 5 | 7 | 12 | 14 | 8 | 14 | 6 | 6 | 1 | 3 | | | 3 | 2 | 82 |
| daily |
| | | | | 3 | 9 | 6 | 8 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 2 | | 1 | 1 | 1 | 46 |
| few |
| | | 2 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 8 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 1 | | 1 | | 1 | | 45 |
| weekly |
| | | | | 2 | 1 | 3 | 1 | | | | | | | | | | 7 |
| rarely |
| | 1 | | 2 | | 5 | 1 | 2 | | 4 | | | | | | 1 | | 16 |
| never |
| | | | | 1 | | 1 | | | 1 | | 1 | | | | | | 4 |
| [column totals] |
| 1 | 1 | 2 | 10 | 19 | 36 | 33 | 22 | 24 | 20 | 10 | 6 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 3 | 200 |
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Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts
with us!
Please remember that all web-based polls
are not scientific because the pollsters cannot randomly select the
respondents to participate in the surveys.
All our surveys are anonymous; check out our privacy
policy. All data copyright 1996-2000.
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