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July 1, 2009

Mat Anderson: Researchers are clueless about teens

In my experience being a teen, working with teens and studying teen culture, I’ve learned that the conventional wisdom about who teens are today is rarely right.

This was proven again recently when a Nielsen report showed that the assumption that today’s teens are spending most of their time (and substantially more time than adults) on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, texting and gaming might not be quite true.

The study, which compiled research from more than two dozen sources, found that teens aren’t consuming media much differently than adults. Just like their parents, teens use Google and watch American Idol and prime time dramas.

Teens also listen to the radio and read newspapers more than commonly thought. Like adults, they are reported to spend more time in front of the TV than the computer. In fact, the average teen was found to spend less than 12 hours a month online, while the average across all age groups was nearly 30 hours per month.

Also, contrary to popular belief, only two of the top five video games among teens since 2005 have been rated mature.

So what does this tell us? Maybe that teen media consumption isn’t as extreme as some people think, and that young people aren’t the technology addicts that many adults fear they are.

However, teens are the most studied, and often the most stereotyped, when it comes to these types of statistics because of their value as consumers.

Teens represent $190 billion in spending each year. As a result, research is often commissioned and funded by marketers and corporations in order to discover the best ways to sell products to teens — not so that parents and other concerned parties can better understand them. (This study by Nielsen, for example, was first presented last week at a marketing conference in New York.)

This means that when we hear research that says 50 percent of teens are addicted to something, or that 1 in 5 teens are engaging in a certain behavior, we may not be getting the whole story. That’s why we end up with headlines one month that tell us that teens are technology addicts and the next month, headlines that tell us they are completely normal.

As a result of this barrage of research and statistics, we as a society often begin to believe what we want to believe about teens and fall into the same trap as the marketers and corporations. We see the teens in our life and our community simply as numbers.

Teens are unique individuals who are still trying to figure out who they are and who they want to be, and they need our help to figure that out. No statistics, studies or expert opinions can replace the knowledge and information found in getting to know the teens in your life.

Here are some ways to connect with your teen:

• Treat each teen as a unique individual distinct from siblings, teen stereotypes, his or her past or your own past.

• Appreciate and acknowledge each teen’s new areas of interest, skills, strengths and accomplishments, as well as the positive aspects of adolescence, such as its passion, vitality, humor and deepening intellectual thought.

• Spend time just listening to your teen’s thoughts and feelings about his or her fears, concerns, interests, ideas, perspectives, activities, jobs, schoolwork and relationships.

Mat Anderson is the staff writer and research specialist at The Bridge in Joplin. For more information visit futureparadigm.org.

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