Myths and realities of teen media trends

Nielsen is out with a new report on media consumption by teens and the results are counter-intuitive to what we commonly believe to be the norm. According to the How Teens Use Media report (PDF), "teens exhibit media habits that are more similar to the total population than not."

Key takeaways from the report:

• Teens are not abandoning TV for new media: In fact, they watch more TV than ever, up 6 percent 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 percent 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 percent more likely to say they liked the ad.
• Teens play video games, but their tastes aren't all for the blood-and-guts style games. Just two of their top five most-anticipated games since 2005 have been rated "Mature."
• Teens' favorite TV shows, top Web sites and genre preferences across media are mostly the same as 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.

One of the more interesting findings from the report is the realization that today's teens are not uniquely wired, but are an "artifact of larger, demographically broader shifts in media behavior. Teens are wildly different--not from other consumers today, but from teens of generations past."

Follow me on Twitter @daveofdoom.

[Dan7637]

i do all this a lot more and i hate american idol

[PiiSPii]

Perhaps we are not the "average teenager".

Remember that you are viewing (and have obviously spent time creating an account for) a website devoted to technology. The average exists, at least in part, because there are teens like us that spend copious amounts of time on the internet, and others who spend there times playing sports and interacting with a mythical orb known as "the sun".

There are also a lot of disillusioned people who think that the "Idol" family of shows is good television.

[Software_Lover]

I like that you hate American Idol. I'm still a teen for about another month and I hate it, too.

[aka_tripleB]

American Idol doesn't allow for a restful sleep if you can hear it. And I'm getting real tired of that mythical orb burning me all the time. If it's not real how does it do it?

Also, the marketing team for Kricket needs to be completely replaced. I can't take hearing another person disrepect "Respect."

[xngk]

Only on the internet 11 hours a month? only 30 a month? wow I am such an outlier , with 3 hours a day I am on at least 90 hours a month

[assman]

I'll admit I'm surprised to see that teens purportedly spend less time on the internet than adults.. less than 12 hours a month? Really? Seems like the average kid would be spending at least a few hours everyday on the computer, so that would be at least 30-60 hours per month.

[Seville786]

Are you serious? Under 12 hours a month? Wow! I spend around 3-4 hours a day even more on the internet...

[T-Guy]

52 minutes a day on the PC and 23 minutes a day on the Internet? Yeah, these seem low. but considering this is an "average", I guess I can understand where it comes from.

If you use Nielsen data, 1 out of 5 households don't even have a PC; 14% of households with teens don't have Internet access; 11% of them have dial-up.... I think the difference in common perception vs. "average teen" data just shows the difference in access and technology use across teen segments.
(data from December, 2008 Overview of Home Internet Access in the U.S. report http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/overview-of-home-internet-access-in-the-us-jan-6.pdf)

[ywkhgqo]

This is definitely not right, every kid i know spends at least 2 hours a day on the computer

[tlinget]

They are talking Mean Average, not Median. Just because you don't fall into one standard deviation of their numbers does not mean it is invalid.

I have two teens on the opposite side of this scale. One will stay on the computer for hours on end, if I let him. The other barely uses it, but watches several shows on TV.

[Darthbane17]

I can't believe that teens spend less than 12 hours a month. I spend at least 3-5 hours on the internet everyday some times even more.

[CodyMac]

I spend almost 12 hours a DAY online! Almost everyday. So I would say that would equate to about 300 hours a month on average. And no, I'm not one of those fat kids you see on Maurry.

[karpenterskids]

Teens read newspapers? Yeah right...

[screamapillar]

It seems hard enough to get adults to read newspapers let alone teens...