New Study on Email Overload: Youngsters respond faster

Perfect fit, this results from a study by researchers at Yahoo Labs in Barcelona and the University of Southern California. to my talk at re:publica 2015. Some interesting findings:

Here are some of the things the study found:

• Most people write shorter responses to email late in the day and on weekends
• Younger users generally send faster and shorter replies
• Men send slightly faster and shorter replies than women
• Replies from mobile devices were faster and shorter than from desktops
• Emails without attachments typically got faster replies

The report, Evolution of Conversations in the Age of Email Overload, noted that users naturally compensate for email overload by responding to a smaller fraction of incoming emails and with shorter replies.

…

One of the more surprising findings: The younger the user, the quicker the response — a finding many parents will likely challenge. Researchers claim teens respond to email, on average, in 13 minutes. The time climbs with age:

• 16 minutes for 20 to 35 year olds
• 24 minutes for 36 to 50 year olds
• 47 minutes for those 51 and older

In general, people respond faster to email from phones, followed by tablets and desktops. Emails from phones have a median reply time of only 28 minutes, compared to the 57 minutes for the replies from tablets, and 62 minutes for the desktop.

via How You Can Cope With Email Overload.