'MySpaceMail - not email, thanks'

A lot of parents could tell, but research now shows that "for the first time, teen email use is dropping - apparently in favor of more 'instant' alternatives," IM-ing, MySpace mail and posting, phone texting, the San Jose Mercury News reports. Some kids who do have email accounts say they got them just so they could sign up for a social-networking account. Even IM growth is slowing, compared to MySpace mail. ComScore Media Metrix found that, in April teen email use nationwide dropped the same month in 2005, since February, teen e-mail use nationwide has been dropping compared with a year earlier. "Even though the average time spent online by teens increased 11.6% from April 2005, to 22.5 hours a month, time on Web mail declined 9%.... Total IM users increased only 1%, while the number of teen users declined 8% - in part, some experts say, because of the rise of MySpace, which allows users to send comments and messages to each other." What's interesting, here, is that MySpace is a separate "universe." If adults don't have an account, they can't contact their child through it – different from being able to IM or email a child through "old-fashioned" channels.