Bluetooth file sharing is all the rage

Another one of Russell’s posts I was reading suggests that Bluetooth file sharing is being used regularly by kids to share music, ringtones, pictures and so on. He goes on to say that:

This has been met with widespread scepticism among ye of little faith.

Ye of little faith need to get out a bit more and talk to the youngsters. Bluetooth file sharing is going on all over the place. It’s absolutely rife.

The New Media Age research Russell quotes reckons 29% of children aged between 9 and 13 share files this way.

I reckon that’s total rubbish. I reckon it’s much nearer 100%.

I talk to children, teenager and, well, actually, anyone who will listen, about mobile phones. Day in, day out. From well heeled youths sporting the top of the range Nokias on ‘dad-pays contracts’ to East End kids with PAYG’s — without exception, Bluetooth is mentioned as a key tool for today’s young mobile phone users.

So much so, that I often get strange ‘he’s not quite with it, is he?’ looks when I say, ‘oh, and how do you swap pictures? Picture messaging?’ It’s so matter-of-fact that it’s not even remarked upon. Often, I have to specifically enquire as to whether they Bluetooth music and videos.

The nail in the coffin for any Bluetooth sharing skeptics is talking to my painter or my plumber, both of whom use age old Nokias, both of whom stop everything to insist they send me a shocker of a video or a picture that ‘their mate sent to them in the pub last night.’

Or, I need only point you to my friends Jo and Nat who, whenever I’m with them, ask if I’ve got anything new that I can ‘send’em’ — meaning sound files, ringtones, videos, pictures or what not. They don’t mean by MMS either. Bluetooth, all the way.

Fascinating. Absolutely fascinating.