How Teens Use Media

The Nielsen Company's insights officially releases its new study, How Teens Use Media, later today at the 2009 What Teens Want conference in NY.  Traditionally viewed as fickle and quick to jump to new technology and away from anything old, the report finds that while Teens are involved in new technology but they haven't given up on media like TV, newspapers and advertising.  Spend any time with a teen and you'll know they are totally adaptable and easily downloading this and that trying out anything and everything at the same time they are texting/IMing (cell phone, computer), listing to music (various devices), surfing the net (on computers and cell phones), playing video games (handheld, consoles, cell phones), and are watching shows/movies/video on a range of devices and locations ... including on a TV.  The Nielsen study underlines that teens aren't just engaged in the new, in fact Teens are watching TV than ever, up by +6% over the past five years in the US.  That is good news for TV folks indeed. Further findings from the study include:
Teens spend less time browsing than adults: Teens spend 11 hours and 32 minutes per month online versus the average of 29 hours and 15 minutes.
Teens spend 35% less time watching online video than adults 25-34, but recall ads better when watching TV shows online than they do on TV.
US teens watch less TV per day than in most other metered countries.
Teens read newspapers, listen to the radio and Teens who recall TV ads are 44% more likely to say they liked the ad.
US Teens' favorite TV shows, top websites and genre preferences across media are mostly the same as their parents, with American Idol being the top show in 2008 and Google the top website.
In the US, nearly half of online Teens 1217 visited MySpace and Facebook in May 2009 (45% and 44%, respectively). All said, Teens 1217 accounted for 28% of MySpace's page views and 12% of Facebook's during the month.