Teen culture moves faster than you can say “Why would Chase Crawford pull out of the remake of Footloose?“. One day we read that they aren’t interested in Twitter, and the next month they’re making “Bustin Jieber” a trending topic to mess with the social media site’s new algorithm where sustained chatter on a given item doesn’t register as a trending topic anymore. One-third of the time, it makes my head spin, another third makes me feel old, and the last third just makes me more curious.
So in a (humble) attempt to better understand the teen scene, Ketchum partnered with myYearbook to survey 10,000 13-19-year-olds on what type of content interests them most, what they think of being friends with their parents on Facebook and if they are in to Foursquare after all. Below are some highlights from Alissa Walker’s post about the study on Fast Company. For the full piece go here.
Don’t friend them (until they’re 18)
56% of teens 13-14 years old were wary of their parents friending them on social networks, but by the time they were 18, only 27% cared.
Friends are friends
Teens who are more social online are more social offline. No more envisioning the ultraconnected teen sitting home to iChat on a Saturday night. The more friends teens have online, the more likely they are to socialize and go to parties in real life.
No check-ins, please
The survey confirms something we’ve been hearing for some time: Teens don’t like location-based apps. Only 16% of influencers report using a mobile application like Foursquare or Gowalla.
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