Teenage Media Consumption: A New Report By a 14 Year Old.

 

Naturally, I thought since we are around the same age and seem to have similar interests in technology an media, I would agree with most of what he said. After reading the full report (http://tinyurl.com/teenmediaconsumption ) I am now able to come to my own conclusions about what Matthew has said.

 

Bearing in mind Matthew is basing his statements upon his circle of friends in the U.K., he is still stereotyping teens all over the world as the same. I feel he should at least have made a statement letting people know this, because he is leading people to believe all teens are the same.

 

Therefore, all statements made by me in this post are my own opinion and are based upon my group of friends within New Zealand. The age group of people I am basing these statements upon is 12 year olds to 18 year olds, with a balance of males and females.

 

Certain statements Matthew made, such as those on directories , TV, and games consoles, I will not comment upon as I do not use these services, therefore cannot provide accurate or at all useful information.

 

Matthew's first statement was about the radio. He said that teens "listen to the radio is for music, but now with online sites streaming music for free they do not bother". From my experience, the only reason teens listen to the radio is for the competitions and giveaways - radio stations such as ZM and RockFM in New Zealand give away anything from movie tickets to cellphones just for ringing up or requesting songs. Matthew is right in the sense that teens can stream music online, and if radio stations did not offer giveaways and competitions I believe teens would not listen to them. Bear in mind that my opinion is based only upon New Zealand radio stations.

 

"No teenager that I know of regularly reads a newspaper, as most do not have the time and cannot be bothered to read pages and pages of text while they could watch the news summarised on the internet or on TV" Matthew stated. While some teenagers I know do read newspapers daily, they are angered by any newspaper that does not have a huge international reputation, such as The Wall Street Journal, International Herald Tribune, or Financial Times. They are angered by smaller newspapers for the simple fact that too many insignificant domestic stories are reported, which clutters up the paper. Teenagers I know only want to hear of stories with international importance or significance. We also do not want to have to hunt for our news - for this reason, online services, such as Google News or RSS Feeds are hugely popular, as we can pick and choose what news reaches us. Unless a newspaper is created and aimed at teenagers to interest us while we are still students, I believe we will grow up to not want newspapers altogether - we will simply turn to online news, which we can read on mobile devices such as phones or laptops, which adds convenience.

 

"The only newspapers that are read are tabloids and freesheets (Metro, London Lite…) mainly because of cost; teenagers are very reluctant to pay for a newspaper (hence the popularity of freesheets such as the Metro)" Matthew wrote. While this may be the case in London, New Zealand's small population means that it is not profitable enough for "freesheets" to be handed out. This means that even more teens turn to online news.

 

Matthew next commented upon the internet. By reading his statements, I realised that there are differences in what services teenagers use, depending on what country we live in. Matthew says "Facebook is the most common, with nearly everyone with an internet connection registered and visiting >4 times a week". Matthew should have clearly stated here that his statements are based upon teenagers in the U.K., as otherwise his statements are hugely misleading. In New Zealand, Bebo is the social networking site of choice. This is for the fact that New Zealanders first started to use Bebo, therefore the growth of teenagers using Bebo within New Zealand grows exponentially as everyone invites their friends onto the service. However, teenagers in New Zealand are starting to switch from Bebo to Facebook.. This is because Bebo essentially turns into a competition as to who has the most page views and "love" (little hearts that can be sent to friends through the service). Teenagers in New Zealand that use Facebook complain about its lack of customisation. Bebo offers numerous ways to customise the service, from page backgrounds to fonts and colours. This has even caused some people I know to turn back to Bebo.

 

On Twitter, Matthew says "most have signed up to the service, but then just leave it as they realise that they are not going to update it (mostly because texting twitter uses up credit, and they would rather text friends with that credit). In addition, they realise that no one is viewing their profile, so their 'tweets' are pointless". In general I agree with this, although I realise there are some exceptions. Certain teenagers I know do use Twitter, but not to send their own "tweets". They "follow" celebrities and people of importance to keep up to date with gossip and news. Essentially they use the service as another form of an RSS reader. To read a full report by a 14 year old on why teenagers don't use Twitter, view this post.

 

"For searching the web, Google is the dominant figure, simply because it is well known and easy to use. Some teenagers make purchases on the internet (on sites like eBay) but this is only used by a small percentage, as a credit card is required and most teenagers do not have credit cards. Many teenagers use YouTube to watch videos (usually anime which cannot be watched anywhere else) and some use it as a music player by having a video with the music they want to listen to playing in the background" Matthew states. I completely agree that Google is the leader in search, and for the same reasons Matthew outlined. In New Zealand, teenagers use TradeMe (an online auction site) to buy, and sometimes sell, items. Because parallel importers use TradeMe to resell their goods, we can usually find brand new electronics such as cellphones or iPods for low prices. Although TradeMe is primarily used by people to sell second-hand goods, all teenagers I know will never buy a second hand item. We will only buy brand new items from sellers with large numbers of positive "feedback" (TradeMe's system of determining if a seller is trustworthy or not). This is for the reason that we all have limited income, and want our items, especially electronic items, to last us for the longest time possible from the day we buy them. Although TradeMe's terms state you must be over 18 to use the service, teenagers will mostly use their parent's accounts to buy and sell items.

 

Youtube is used regularly by all teenagers I know, although not just for viewing videos. We also upload videos of things we do, such as a trip we've been on, and then share it through Facebook or Bebo for our friends to watch. Usually just a couple of people in a group of friends will film and upload videos to YouTube, but the rest will watch it. More and more teenagers in New Zealand are using YouTube to watch TV shows, as YouTube introduces this service. I predict that if YouTube can upload past-episodes of all the major New Zealand TV shows, at least 75% of teenagers will use this. The 25% that don't will mostly be males, as it is mainly females that like to spend time online catching up with TV shows.

 

On music, Matthew essentially says that teenagers listen to music while doing other things, and that it is usually downloaded illegally as 79p is too high a price. He also says that teenagers listen to music from iPods if they come from a wealthy family, or from a mobile phone if they come from a poorer family. In New Zealand, 95% of teenagers I know own an iPod and will use it every single day for at least two hours (travelling on school buses) and maybe more depending on what else they are doing. Bear in mind that the school I go to is a decile 10 school, so this means a higher proportion of families are wealthy. This will most likely also be the cause of why most teenagers I know will happily pay NZD$1.79 for a song.

 

The most popular iPod is definitely the iPod Nano, as it is cheapest and smallest - teenagers do not have huge music libraries, as they usually only have singles and not whole albums. iPod Touches are also very popular as the Apps that can be downloaded from the iTunes App store make using an iPod more fun and add extra features. Teenagers that do have iPod Touches choose to "jailbreak" them. This essentially removes Apple's firmware from the iPod, making it completelycustomisable. iPod Touches would be more

popular if Apple made this customisation available from thepurchase of the iPod, without people having to do this themselves and voiding the warranty (jailbreaking is illegal).

 

Album artwork for songs is hugely important to teenagers I know, as it adds an extra dimension to listening to music. As all the new iPod Nano's, and all iPod Touches have accelerometers built in, by turning your iPod on its side you can browse all your music by artwork.

 

"Teenagers visit the cinema quite often, regardless of what is on. Usually they will target a film first, and set out to see that, but sometimes they will just go and choose when they get there. This is because going to the cinema is not usually about the film, but the experience –and getting together with friends" Matthew wrote. I completely agree with this statement of his, and the cinema is definitely one area in which teens, at least in western countries, have the same habits. More and more teenagers I know are choosing to download movies from either the iTunes store, or illegally from services such as MiniNova through Torrents. They then watch these movies on their iPods, as it is convenient and they can do it in their own rooms.

 

On cellphones, Matthew talked about styles of phone, payment options, and services used. I can find many differences between what teens in the U.K. use, and what teens in New Zealand use. In New Zealand, only two mobile providers exist (although a new one is releasing very shortly). Telecom and Vodafone are New Zealand's providers, and which service teens in New Zealand use is decided by what service our friends use, as we get cheaper prices. In Wellington, most teenagers are on Telecom, yet in Auckland most teenagers are with Vodafone. Like the choice between Bebo and Facebook, this is decided simply by which provider got more users in which area first.

 

All teenagers I know are heavy texters, and will send anything between 1500 and 4000 texts a month. In New Zealand we pay huge prices if texting between networks (it is expensive to send a text from a Telecom phone to a Vodafone phone, and vice versa) so we usually only text people on the same network. Calling from a cellphone is done very irregularly, both because of price and because it is not as private. However, teenagers I know do call each other from landlines as it is free for local calls. Contracts for cellphones are only used if it is a "Home Bill", in which parents will link the cost to their home landline account. For more information on cellphone charges in New Zealand, read this post.

 

Most teenagers I know have a "middle" class phone. This is not super cheap, but not super expensive. The phone will most often have a camera, although this is used very little as quality is bad. Touch screens are becoming more and more popular as prices come down, although I believe they will never become the dominant cellphone as it is quicker to text from an actual keypad. Phones are usually upgraded at least once every two years, although in year where technology progresses more rapidly and more features are added to phones, teenagers will upgrade at least once a year. For more information on mobile phone choice in New Zealand, read this post.

 

Mobile data is also being used more often, as providers offer "casual" data rates, at $1 a day, only on the days you use it. This is mainly used to check Facebook or Bebo accounts. However again, I would estimate only 10% of teens in New Zealand use mobile data, because of the price. This percentage is growing, however. Teens would use mobile data more often if it was offered at lower cost, even if it let you use a smaller amount of data. For example, 1MB for NZD10c.

 

Ringtones, wallpapers, and other downloadable services are not used at all by teenagers I know, for the reason that they are gimmicky and provide little value. Although customisation is important, this can instead be done by utilising the phone's camera or recorder.

 

Telecom (read this post on Telecom's network) has recently partnered up with Bebo to offer mobile Bebo. This service is currently not being used by any teenager I know, for the same reason that teens don't use much mobile data. Although Telecom is currently offering three months free mobile Bebo, teenagers are still put off by having to pay after those three months are up. This service could be hugely popular if a provider offered unlimited access for say NZD $5 a month.

 

Televisions and computers are desirable amongst all teenagers in New Zealand I know, however because of their high cost, teenagers will tend to use the family computer or TV until one is bought for them. Teenagers that I know hate saving for ages and then spending it all on one thing.

By Michael Moore-Jones, 14.
Please feel free to contact me for any further information (details on the right), and read my post here for a detailed report on why teenagers don't use Twitter.