Some of the most connected people out there are Millennials – usually defined as people born between 1978 and 2000 (about 76 million people, depending on where you look). They’re young, they’re hip, and they’re plugged in everywhere they go, even when they’re unplugged.
The problem is, this is also the first generation that will suffer from communication overload. Here are a few interesting stats:
Nielsen Mobile reports that text messaging (sending and receiving) is up 450 percent, in the past two years
IT Facts says that there will likely be 100 million mobile VoIP (voice over IP) users by 2011.
87 percent of all teens engage in some form of electronic communication! Those teens are tomorrow’s interns and salespeople and managers and CEOs...
...And product managers! I wanted to get an idea of how a professional who’s also a Millennial deals with communication overload, so I asked VoxOx Product Manager Bryan Mathews (who’s in his mid-twenties) to take a “snapshot” of his day so we could all see just how crazy it can get.
Phone: 20-30 calls
IM: more than 12 conversations (more than 100 total messages)
Social network notifications: 30-60
Email: more than 200
Texts (SMS): 20-50
He tells me it’s hard to manage all his networks (he belongs to more than 12).
He says,
“I really only focus on the two or three that have the most contacts for me. Some of my friends are on every network out there, while others belong to just one and they refuse to join any others. So finding my contacts can get frustrating when jumping from one service to another.”
Of course, Voxox is all about easing this sense of overload, so Bryan M.’s definitely in the right place!
So what kind of volume do you see every day with your different personal communications channels? Do you ever feel like you’re neglecting a contact if you don’t respond immediately? Tell me about it here.