The online habits of teenagers
It was a small focus group consisting of two people 30 years or older (we oldies were the moderators), two 20-somethings who were observing and four female teenagers: an 18-year-old, a 15-year-old and two 14-year-olds. We gathered in a modest conference room in the Scout Design offices above the Regent Theatre in Picton and basically talked about our habits online. The conversation astounded me.
According to this group, teenagers today don’t use email nor Twitter, do use facebook and instant messaging but seldom join groups there unless they’re funny, they never click online advertisements and they try to spend as much time as they can online laughing. If they share a link it’s by copying and pasting it into an instant message or suggesting someone “type in this” to see something; but they never – ever – hit the “share” button that comes with YouTube videos or blog posts like this one.
These teens also seem to spend as much of their free time as they can online, although they say this means being logged on but not necessarily sitting at the computer. For example, they count time uploading photos as being online, even though they might have walked away to do the dishes while they wait.
We were surprised to hear about the sites they commonly visit, ones we’d never heard of like Fail Blog and F my Life (both hilarious, by the way).
They’re editing photos and videos on YouTube and with platforms like iPhoto and PicNik.
They also love to play games online through sites like Mind Jolt.
There was a big difference between the ways we and these students use the Internet – probably because they’ve grown up with it, while we didn’t perform our first emails or Web searches until our 20s. Might this suggest that the meaning of social media is different between the generations, too? And I wonder how different the habits of these Prince Edward Count teens differ from those of their urban counterparts.
You captured that well, I was surprised as well, in particular was the fear of viruses they feared their computers could catch by clicking on an ad or the share button. It was fascinating and revealing.
If I may add to this, my 14 year-old daughter uses Windows Live for instant messaging with her social circle. Aside from any homework related research, the only other thing she does online is virtual shopping. No credit card yet. Remember the term “window shopping” from another era? She’ll check out the latest arrivals, then go to the mall when she has enough money.
Was there any mention of backing up? The fear of viruses surprises me so I’m wondering if they’re as conscious about backups. I also wonder how much mobile surfing they do. I find it extremely handy to be able to surf on my iPhone when I’m away from my laptop. It’s also when I’m most likely to experiment with new sites.
I do think that if you take any sample small enough you’ll find an odd subset of favourite sites. My colleagues love theonion.com and theoatmeal.com.
Yes, my eyes were opened during that meeting as well. No email?! Facebook ads don’t work?! I can now see how valuable these little tidbits of info are for marketing campaigns. I also agree that 4 teens is much too small of a ‘sample size’ to get a true representation of online teen habits, but I bet they were pretty close! BTW, I was up till 1pm that night laughing at Failblog! Fail!
[...] different from that of adults. Jennifer Lester caught the specifics around their habits on her blog and, in a nutshell, teenagers live online if they are not in class. They are living behind the [...]