p2pnet.net News- Mobiles are cool, but landlines still rule. That’s the bottom line in a new report.

Because although teenagers in the US now live in a world in which the Net and cell phones are integral to life as they understand it, the tried-and-tested landline telephone is still their favourite way of communicating, says a Pew Internet & American Life Project study.

“The vast majority of teens in the United States, 87% of those aged 12 to 17, now use the internet,” it says. “That amounts to about 21 million youth who use the internet, up from roughly 17 million when we surveyed this age cohort in late 2000.

“Not only has the wired share of the teenage population grown, but teens’ use of the internet has intensified. Teenagers now use the internet more often and in a greater variety of ways than they did in 2000.

“There are now approximately 11 million teens who go online daily, compared to about 7 million in 2000.”

• 87% of U.S. teens aged 12-17 use the internet, up from 73% in 2000. By contrast, 66% of adults use the internet, up from 56% in 2000.
• 51% of teenage internet users say they go online on a daily basis, up from 42% in 2000.

“At the same time, the scope of teens’ online lives has also broadened,” the study continues. “One out of every two teens who use the internet lives in a home with a broadband connection. Wired teens are more frequent users of instant messaging. And they are now more likely to play games online, make purchases, get news, and seek health information.”

• 81% of teen internet users play games online. That represents about 17 million people and signifies growth of 52% in the number of online gamers since 2000.
• 76% get news online. That represents about 16 million people and signifies growth of 38% in the number of teens getting news online since 2000.
• 43% have made purchases online. That represents about 9 million people and signifies growth of 71% in teen online shoppers since 2000.
• 31% use the internet to get health information. That represents about 6 million people and signifies growth of 47% in the number of teens using the internet this way since 2000.

But as the number of users has increased, so has the variety of technologies that teens use to support their communication, research, and entertainment activities, says Pew.

Eighty-four percent say they own at least one personal media device: a desktop or laptop computer, a cell phone or a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA). Forty-four percent say they have two or more devices while 12% have three and 2% report having all four of those types of devices.

“Only 16% of all teens report that they do not have any of these devices at all,” says Pew.

And when it come sot cell phones, close to half of teens (45%) own one and 33% have used a cell phone to send a text message.

“Texting on cell phones is particularly common among those who already go online frequently and use other internet tools often. Teens who have cell phones are heavy users of online communication tools. One in four cell phone-owning teens have used their phone to connect to the internet.”

And although email used to be where it’s at for teens, IM (instant messaging) is now taking hold.

“Teens who participated in focus groups for this study said that they view email as something you use to talk to ‘old people,’ institutions, or to send complex instructions to large groups,” says Pew. “When it comes to casual written conversation, particularly when talking with friends, online instant messaging is the clearly the mode of choice for today’s online teens.”

About half of instant-messaging teens – or roughly 32% of all teens – use IM every day.

“As the platforms for instant messaging programs spread to cell phones and handheld devices, teens are starting to take textual communication with them into their busy and increasingly mobile lives,” says the study.

“IM is a staple of teens’ daily internet diet and is used for a wide array of tasks – to make plans with friends, talk about homework assignments, joke around, check in with parents, and post ‘away messages’ or notices about what they are doing when they are away from their computers.”

But landline phones remain, “the most dominant communication medium in teens’ everyday life, states Pew, adding that the phone remains the tool of choice for the majority of teens:

• 51% of online teens usually choose the landline telephone when they want to talk with friends.
• 24% said they will most often use instant messaging.
• 12% prefer to call friends on their cell phone.
• 5% use email most often to communicate with friends.
• 3% prefer to use text messages.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, July 28th, 2005 at 1:54 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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