Teen Tech Trends 2011

 

A survey among teenagers between 13 and 19 years old found that nearly three-quarters of teens access the internet through their mobile phones. The iPhone was the favorite brand of phone for the teens and 56% of teens surveyed used their mobile phones for texting with friends. While just over a quarter of the teens (27%) said they do still utilize traditional e-mail programs, a larger number (38%) regularly chat with their friends through Facebook. Facebook was shown to be the dominant social networking resource with 97% of teens reporting they did use Facebook, Twitter trailed as the second most popular social site with 60% of teens tweeting on a regular basis. Over half of the teens admitted they might be sharing too much information online, but felt it necessary to continue to maintain a social-networking presence regardless.

 

When it came to online purchases, music and concert tickets were the items most often purchased by teenagers, with most borrowing their parents’ credit cards to buy goods and services online. Almost half of the teens said they bought music (46%) on iTunes. The split between the kids who downloaded music without paying for it, and the kids who 43pc borrowed CDs from friends was about even. In fact, the teens who said they got most all of their music recommendations from friends ran at 73%. A similar number (68%) said they got their music purchase recommendations from the radio. Teenagers watch less television than they did 10 years ago, but they watch it on their own schedule instead of viewing it as aired.  Nearly half of the teens responding said they streamed TV shows through an iPlayer or similar device and that nearly a quarter of them downloaded television shows on their laptops to watch later.

 

Studies have shown that teens who are Facebook users spend nearly one-third of all of their time online just on Facebook alone. Teenage users spent the most time online and on Facebook too, with most spending nearly 10 hours a week on Facebook by itself. The hours teens spend online can seem a bit excessive when compared to Facebook users aged 55 and older who spend less than 4 hours a week on the social site. Kids and teens are the largest and fastest growing category of Internet users today and as more new technologies are introduced, you can be sure teenagers will be among the first to master them.