How Teens Are Using Media

A (relatively) new report by Nielsen (pdf) gives us a look into how teens are using media, and the results are a little surprising:

The notion that teens are too busy texting and Twittering to be engaged with traditional media is exciting, but false.

To develop the best strategy around teens and media, start by challenging popular assumptions about teens. Don’t focus on the outliers, but on the macro-level trends of media and preferences for the segment. The averages will show you that teens can often be reached by the same means as their parents.

In this report, “How Teens Use Media,” we debunk the myths and give you the hard facts.

• Teens are NOT abandoning TV for new media: In fact, they watch more TV than ever, up 6% over the past five years in the U.S.
• Teens love the Internet…but spend far less time browsing than adults: Teens spend 11 hours and 32 minutes
  per month online—far below the average of 29 hours and 15 minutes.
• Teens watch less online video than most adults, but the ads are highly engaging to them: Teens spend 35% less time watching online video than adults 25–34, but recall ads better when watching TV shows online than they do on television.
• Teens read newspapers, listen to the radio and even like advertising more than most: Teens who recall TV ads are 44% more likely to say they liked the ad.
• Teens play video games, but are as excited about play-along music games and car-racing games as they are about violent ones: Just two of their top five most-anticipated games since 2005 are rated “Mature.”
• Teens’ favorite TV shows, top websites and genre preferences across media are mostly the same as those of their parents: For U.S. teens, American Idol was the top show in 2008, Google the top website and general dramas are a preferred TV genre for teens around the world.

This all sounds very counterintuitive - and one might like to doubt the veracity of stats promoting the television industry distributed by Nielsen - but the report is actually quite evenhanded and makes a point very similar to what we've been saying at Future Majority for years: young people are just like older people, and if you target them, they will respond. Whereas we're talking about voter engagement tactics, they are talking purely about media consumption habits (though to be sure there is overlap between the two categories).

Perhaps the biggest takeaway for me is this: teens embrace new media not at the cost of traditional media, but in supplement it.

Here's what that looks like in chart form:

Also interesting - but less a focus of the study - is the extent to which the data points to the 18 - 29 age window as the time in which many of the media habits normally associated with teens kick in, and in fact, when it comes to internet usage, it is people over 35 who are the heaviest users. The one new media category in which stereotypes seem to hold true is in text messaging, in which teens are by far the most prolific users.

Interesting stuff that I'm sure will help campaigns and nonprofits better target teens in the future.