If you’re feeling hip ’cause the kids are keeping in touch with you via e-mail, you might want to tune in to what they’re really thinking….

Many teens say it’s how they talk to “old people,” not each other, researchers found.

“E-mail is not the go-to conversation tool any longer,” said Amanda Lenhart, a senior research specialist with the Pew project, which studies the way the Web affects society.

“What teens are picking up is that in some ways, the e-mail medium is a longer, more involved form of communication. IM is what they use when they talk to friends. It feels to them much more like a conversation.”

About 75 percent of teens with Internet access use IM software, said the study, which was based on a phone survey last fall of 1,100 U.S. children age 12 to 17 and their parents.

By comparison, about 42 percent of online adults use IM, the Pew study said.

The article doesn’t mention that many American kids might prefer IM because it removes them one step further from the need to compose a coherent paragraph. I prefer that explanation to the notion that I am getting old.