SOUND OFF: The Young People like newspapers and spend less time online?

Conventional wisdom says that "the young people" (in this case we'll say teenagers) are not easy to pin down when it comes to what they like and how they live their lives. For the longest time we've been told they aren't reading the newspaper (despite the best efforts of "youth columnists"). We've been told they spend countless hours online and playing video games at the expense of good old fashioned TV.

Apparently this is all wrong, wrong, wrong.

A new survey released by The Nielsen Company, the good folks behind things like TV ratings, finds that those assumptions are not just off the mark but in some cases just wrong. In "How Teens Use Media: A Nielsen report on the myths and realities of teen media trends," we find out that not only are teens spending less time online than we think, but they actually read newspapers!

Consider these highlights from the report:

"Teens are NOT abandoning TV for new media: In fact, they watch more TV than ever, up 6% over the past five years in the U.S.
"Teens love the Internet … but spend far less time browsing than adults: Teens spend 11 hours and 32 minutes per month online. Far below the average of 29 hours and 15 minutes.
"Teens watch less online video than most adults, but the ads are highly engaging to them: 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 television.
"Teens read newspapers, listen to the radio and even like advertising more than most: Teens who recall TV ads are 44% more likely to say they liked the ad."

Hey now! Things are great, right? Even newspapers have some good news: "More than a quarter of U.S. teens say they read a daily newspaper and more than a third say they read on Sunday," the report says.

As great as this sounds, something still nags at me. It's not that I don't want more people to read the paper (and thus keeping me employed), but the report seems a little too optimistic. Perhaps I'm skeptical because the report was unveiled at a conference about marketing to teens? Or maybe it's because this isn't a glass half empty, half full situation. Maybe it's a "glass is leaking" scenario.

Let's look at newspapers for second. According to the Pew Research
Center's State of the News Media 2009 report, 31 percent of 18 - to 24-year-olds read a newspaper daily. That's a drop of 2 percentage points from the previous year and down from 40 percent in 2003.

Yipes.

Also, what should we make of the figure that teens spend 11 hours online a month. Wouldn't that average out to a little over 2 hours a week? Does that sound right to anyone? I've got no doubt they spend less time online than adults who kill hours online at work everyday. But how is it possible that teens are spending that little time on the Internets when you consider another report from Nielsen that says kids (in this case 2-11) are spending more time online...up to 11 hours a month. If that's an increase, wouldn't they spend even more time online as they get older? Don't they have to spend more time online just for school? Couldn't you burn more than 2 hours online a week searching for stuff for class?

I'm not going to go as far as saying Nielsen's off the mark or flat out wrong. They do research and crunch numbers for a living (though I did have trouble sussing out their methodology on the new report). There's a real possibility that these numbers represent a change in the direction media consumption by "the young people" has been heading over the last few years.

Maybe I'm just a "youth columnist' who's aging out of his coverage area and developing a curmudgeon streak. I am after all a card-carrying member of the skeptical media elite. Then again, it's possible we're both right here. If there is one thing we do know, it's that teens will always be an elusive target no matter what you throw at them. After all, there was a point when marketers thought all teens wanted on MTV as music videos. These days? Sixteen-year-old baby mama drama.

SOUND OFF: Believe the Nielsen report? Am I being overly skeptical?

Links:

"Our Kids Aren't Web Addicted, Says Study. Are We?" [Fast Company]

"Nielsen Debunks Myths On Teens And Media - They Still Watch TV!" [Tech Crunch]

"Is Nielsen 'Myth Busting' Or Just Bolstering Traditional Media?" [Y Pulse]

"Smells Like Teen Media Usage (They Stick With TV)" [New Tee Vee]