No Parent Left Behind

The practice of trying to understand ours teens has been a national past time for as long as we’ve been a nation. Consumption habits has often topped the list of things that we try to understand. Fast forward to 2009 and the story is still the same but now it surrounds trying to understand the habits of our youths’ media consumption.

This month 2 new articles/studies have come out to try to help us learn about our teens. One from a large research company, one from a 15 year-old kid. To be honest I think the 15-year-old did a better job conveying his point but…

Here’s the synopsis for both:

15 year-olds Matthew Robson Report: Teens Snub Twitter, Enjoy Viral Marketing

• Teens don’t use twitter
• Teens would rather text
• Video game technologies will keep teens connected
• Are unwilling to pay for music, rather free (illegal) download

Link to full report.

Nielsen Research Synopsis:

• Teens are NOT abandoning TV for new media
• Teens love the Internet…but spend far less time browsing than adults
• Teens watch less online video than most adults, but the ads are highly engaging to them
• Teens read newspapers, listen to the radio and even like advertising more than most
• Teens’ favorite TV shows, top websites and genre preferences across media are mostly the same as those of their parents

Link to the full report.

** UPDATE Aug 5** Nielsen recently published the stats on youth twitter use.  Read the full article here

My take:

• Teens don’t use twitter much but prefer texting for the private aspect of it.
• Facebook and Myspace use is steadily growing and will be used more and more in the future.   (I think Facebook will start to take over because it is more simple, clean and mainstream. )
• Teens, because they are teens, will continue to do things differently. (As they get older they will start to use the more mainstream tools to communicate, whatever the flavor of the year is. )
• Mobile apps will start to help all technologies converge effectively into a smaller platform that does it all, like the iPhone.
• And every teen will get implanted with a Lo-Jack style tracking system so their parents know where they are when they break curfew… again.