Study highlights youth tech use across cultures

Findings

Some of the findings include:

The average Chinese young person has 37 online friends he or she has never met, Indian youth are most likely to see mobile phones as a status symbol, while one in three UK and US teenagers say they can't live without their games console.

Globally, the average young person connected to digital technology has 94 phone numbers in his or her mobile, 78 people on a messenger buddy list and 86 people in their social networking community. Yet despite their technological immersion, digi-kids are not geeks – 59% of 8 – 14 year-old kids still prefer their TV to their PCs and only 20% of 14 – 24 year-old young people globally admitted to being ‘interested' in technology. They are, however, expert multi-taskers and able to filter different channels of information.

Circuits of Cool/Digital Playground used both qualitative and quantitative methodology to talk to 18 000 “tech embracing” kids (8 – 14) and young people (14 – 24) in 16 countries: UK, Germany, Holland, Italy, Sweden, Denmark, Poland, US, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, China, India, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. MTV Networks and Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions studied 21 technologies that impact on the lives of young people: Internet, email, PC, TV, mobile, IM, cable and sat TV, DVD, MP3, stereo/hi-fi, digital cameras, social networks, on and offline video games, CDs, HD TV, VHS, webcams, MP4 players, DVR/PVRs, and hand-held games consoles.

The report found:

• Technology has enabled young people to have more and closer friendships thanks to constant connectivity.
  
• Friends influence each other as much as marketers do. Friends are as important as brands.
  
• Kids and young people don't love the technology itself – they just love how it enables them to communicate all the time, express themselves and be entertained.
  
• Digital communications such as IM, email, social networking sites and mobile/SMS are complementary to, not competitive with, TV. TV is part of young peoples' digital conversation.
  
• Despite the remarkable advances in communication technology, kid and youth culture looks surprisingly familiar, with almost all young people using technology to enhance rather than replace face-to-face interaction.
  
• Globally, the number of friends that young males have more than doubles between the ages of 13 – 14 and 14 – 17 – it jumps from 24 to 69.
  
• The age group and gender that claims the largest number of friends are not girls aged 14 – 17, but boys aged 18 – 21, who have on average 70 friends.

Business impact

Advertisers and content companies wishing to evolve and engage with kids and youth audiences need to understand the changes taking place in how kids and young people lead their lives. “Traditional youth marketing considered opinion formers and influencers to be a small elite, but these days the elite has become much larger,” says Andrew Davidson, VP of VBS International Insight, MTV Networks International.

A clear majority of young people asked said the majority of website links (88%) they viewed and the viral video content they downloaded (55%) came from friends' recommendations. Audiences also wanted more control of what they watched and when they wanted it. Young people expect content to be on all platforms; mobile, computer and TV. They want it to be searchable and increasingly expect it to be supplied on demand through services such as Joost.

“In an age when young people influence each other as much as marketers do, friends are becoming as important as brands. Kids have much more power to influence each other. You need to be interesting enough for kids and young people to bother to talk about you. You need to be remarkable. If not, you won't be respected – that's what some brands get wrong,” concludes Davidson.