MediaPost: Study: IM Soaring Among Adults, But At-Work Usage Less Than Expected

A new Pew study shows that instant messaging (IM) has spread among adults, with 51 million of them having used the technology. A quarter of those use IM more often than email. In an average day, 15 million adults use IM, about a third of the IM audience. Of those adults, the great majority are young people aged 18 to 27. Often these IMs are sent within the same organization, building or even office space. The study did find that workplace IMs were less common than often assumed, with only 21 percent of IM users doing so in the workplace.