Further enhancing the notion that you don’t need “beer muscles” to say something outrageous, America’s teens have now resorted to hiding behind their pc’s to say things to people they otherwise would not say face to face.

However, on the flip side IM’ing has led to a  significant spike in dates to the mall and the movies  since Twenty-two percent of teens use IMs to ask people out on dates or accept them. Unfortuntaely, fearing the fallout from rejection and or puppy dog eyes, 13%  have used IM for breaking up.

Interestingly enough for parents, this latest data has shot holes in their notion that their teenage son or daughter was banging out the rough draft on that report due next tuesday. Instead, nearly half of teens age 13 to 18 said they use instant messaging.

Among teenagers, about half of girls and more than a third of boys said they have used instant messages for things they wouldn’t say in person. Which means whatever you want it to mean, and we’ll leave it at that!

Teens also dominate when it comes to high usage. One in 10 say they spend three hours or more a day instant messaging, that’s right 3 hours. Nearly a fifth, or 17%, send more than 100 IMs daily. Ok so lets do some math. They go to school from 7:30 to 3, then there might be practice or homework or a job, so that means the better part of the evening is spent IM’ing. There is a some sort of cultural message there, but I’ll let you figure that out on your own.

The online survey of 410 teens and 836 adults was conducted from Oct. 25-Nov. 5 by Knowledge Networks. The margin of sampling error was plus or minus 6 percentage points for teens and 4.3 points for adults.