Teens, Cell Phones, and Social Media
~ By Colette
I was talking with a young neighbor the other day. Her parents have never been big fans of the Internet and with the recent economic crunch they have cancelled their Internet service. However, she still has her iPhone, and while we talked she pulled it out of her pocket to show me. She immediately became distracted by something on the screen, and after a flurry of key tapping, she was able to bring her attention back to our conversation.
I previously blogged about teens’ and adults’ use of social media, with the goal of understanding how youth are using social media so we can connect with them or engage them in discussions about healthy choices. However, while many of us still think “computer” when we talk about social media, many of today’s cell phones are actually computers with phone capabilities. Therefore, when we think about engaging youth in health promotion activities through social media, it is important to look at how teens are using their cell phones as tools for social media, not just their desktop or laptop computer.
A recent report titled Teens and Mobile Phones, published in April 2010 by the Pew Internet & American Family Life Project, allows us to do just that. This report is based on survey data collected from June through September 2009, with 800 teens ages 12 to 17, plus one of their parents.
Teens and Cell Phones
In the few years that Pew has been conducting research on cell phones, use among teens has risen from 45% in fall of 2004 to 75% in fall of 2009. The tipping point appears to be between ages 12 (when 58% of teens have cell phones) and 13 (with 73% having cell phones). The authors note that boys and girls are as likely to have a cell phone, but they do not necessarily use it the same way.
Of those teens who have cell phones, 27% use it to access the Internet. For teens like my neighbor who do not have access to the Internet at home, some chose to use a cell phone instead. Among teens in the survey who did not go online with a computer, 21% did so with their cell phone. This relationship is even stronger for youth from low income households, suggesting that the cell phone may be a good alternative for accessing the Internet in households that can’t afford computers.
Social Media on the Cell Phone
Of course, many cell phones do not support common social media applications. Two-thirds of the youth reported that their cell phone doesn’t support email (64%) or social networking (63%), and just over 1 in 10 used their cell phone for these purposes more than a few times a week (13% for email, 16% for SNS).
At the time of the survey, teens’ use of social media on their cell phones, worked out like this:
- Text Messaging — 88%
- Exchanging Pictures — 64%
- Exchanging Video — 32%
- Instant Messaging — 31%
- Social Networking Sites — 23%
- Email — 21%
Put in Perspective
However, it is important to keep these percentages in perspective. While 88% of youth use their cell phone to text message, only 75% of teens actually own a cell phone. So looking at percentages as a subset can give a skewed perception of how many youth are using these technologies.
According to this report, when we look at communication patterns for all teens, regardless of their access to either cell phones or the Internet, actual usage is much lower. While 82% of teens with cell phones use them to text friends at least once a day, when we look at all teens, just over half (54%) do this.
Therefore, as we look to connect with and engage youth through social media, it is important to keep in mind which mediums they are using and how they are using them.
Engaging with Youth
I have recently spent quite a bit of time scouring the Internet to learn how adults working with youth or in youth-serving organizations are using social media to connect and engage youth. I’ve been especially interested in learning what has worked and what hasn’t. While I’ve found many examples of attempts to engage with youth using social media (for example, Facebook fan pages and YouTube videos), I’ve found few indications of what has worked, what hasn’t, and what fine-tuning needed to be done, with the exception of a recent article by the Search Institute. This article shows how a Youth Services Coordinator uses text messaging to connect with her group of students. This Coordinator suggests that we be sure to set boundaries and to be clear about the intent of the texting. For example, will you use your personal cell phone? What exactly will you be texting the youth about?
Have you attempted to connect or engage with youth through social media? Have your efforts been successful? Do you have tips or success stories to share?
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All data in this blog post comes from Teens and Mobile Phones by Amanda Lenhart, Rich Ling, Scott Campbell, and Kristen Purcell. Published by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, April 20, 2010. Data was originally collected from June through September, 2009.
