A few interesting articles about the evolution of social properties, from observing 10th grade tech trends (link above) to thinking about the "volatility of platforms: branch.com (link below). I think the author over-reacts to 10th graders love of gifs, etc. I don't think a younger gen's lack of interest in long-form means its obsolete, they just haven't grown into it yet. Also the idea that Facebook was intentionally built "uncool" so it would endure is interesting. Lots to digest here. Thoughts?

I think EV's point in the branch is spot on. You go where your friends are. Either that or you go and try to evangelize your social network to follow you.

High schoolers are on snapchat so they can sext safely (but not that safely).

They are on instagram and take pictures of themselves and other people because they are vain insecure little hormonal balls of activity.

High schoolers are weird.

As you get older you grow up and you realize that hey that picture of a pretty tree is better than a selfy of yourself...

The interesting question is... what will happen to email? It is too ingrained into our culture at this point and likely will never substantially change in this decade... but maybe high schoolers can force that change?

The comparison between Tumblr and MySpace feels spot on. While they're quite different in functionality, the more narrow use of Tumblr seems to reflect a global shift towards photos, more bite-sized content, and the rise of passive engagement.

And the journey from identity curation to friend curation to social productivity seems to be a coherent way to track the migration of properties as a user matures.

The "email is dead narrative" is tired. I think it merely conforms to the requirements of each of these cohorts, & rather than migrating from one medium to the next, we tend to layer and customize our use, relying on multiple mediums as our communication needs broaden and deepen.

I like that model of identity curation / friend curation / social productivity. I don't think you progress as much as you do layer on the additional need (maybe that's what Max is suggesting with "communication needs to broaden and deepen). I think the next level of social products will extract your needs from the platforms to be more flexible and fit that model. For example, moving the interest graph out of Facebook so you can curate it separately from you friend feed, and apply it as necessary (following content and curating your interest graph can't be one and the same). There's a lot of progress that needs to be made here. Article idea?

Aren't the social graph and social search linked here? That seems like a good article idea with the addition of Max's layering concept.

E-mail is a carrier. Document delivery system. E-mail is the new fax and is not going anywhere. People are using it incorrectly and have from the start I fear and now they have no idea how to relearn it.

The real-time social scene isn't that far off, you can use Path/Facebook for that already. FB Messenger is there, post a pic, check-in. Depending on how active you are, someone can check your every move if you wish to share it.

Same with G+, you can use Latitude to find friends around you, post anything and everything on G+, and use Hangouts for real-time chat.

Kevin - I don't think youngsters have lost touch with long form, they just redefined it. Long form to them is more than 160 characters & longer than 3.5 minutes to watch.

Interesting idea that a spectrum of short-form and long-form still exists, the scale has just drastically shifted (Branch, for example, caps at 750 char., vs 140., is that "long" ?). I do think younger generations that haven't fallen into email will grudgingly accept it when they enter the work force. But they'll also tap other forms of communication more aggressively. Already I get business requests via Facebook, which drives me crazy as I feel violated by the crossing the line-- a trend that will only grow.

And Jordan (man Branch needs @mentions), I think the bigger separation is between social graph and interest graph, because your social circle doesn't always have the same interests.

Kevin, you get requests via Facebook because Facebook is no longer personal life. It is your life.

everyone is talking about snapchat but i cant find a single friend on it. not even my 11th grade sisters