Every so often, I see a report like this – usually anecdotal data about a particular young heavy user of a technology (computers, games etc.) or service (MySpace, Facebook etc.) But the underlying thread is quite simple – the way people who have grown up with technology actually use is is quite different to those of us who were introduced to it later in life.

For me, social media is an additional 'layer' on top of 'real' social stuff – seeing people, phone calls, texts, emails etc.

This account of a teenage (American) girl's life through the lens of an iPhone is interesting enough. But its not the points about weight/frequency of use that blow me away – its the fact that digital communication is so completely central to these girls' lives that astonishes me.

Its one thing to imagine how my own life as a teenager/young adult would have been different (the kinds of photos that might have appeared on Facebook, for example), but its another thing altogether to imagine how the important things in life would have been different – which friendships would have been strengthened, which ones might have fallen by the wayside.