Friday, August 15, 2008

What's Next: Tweens

Move over Millennials--if we thought Gen Y was the tech generation just wait until today's Tweens graduate into young adults.

Time Spent with Select Media by US Tween Internet Users, May 2008 (% of respondents)

41% of Tween internet users listen to the radio less than 1 hour per week--that according to a survey conducted by DoubleClick Performics and ROI Research. Let me repeat that - less than one hour per WEEK.

83% of 10-14 year old Tweens use the internet at least an 1 hour per day. The recent survey concluded that young US consumers spent more time on the Internet than with any other type of media.

According to Arbitron's 10 year TSL trend trend, through spring '07, among teens (12-17) there has been a 20% decline in weekly TSL. For the purpose of comparison I have taken the data an converted it into average daily TSL.

As of the Spring '07 the average teen uses the radio about 1 hour and 42 minutes a day down from 2 hours and 8 minutes in fall '98. Spring '07 cume was 90.6% compared with 95.6 back in fall '98.

So if we were to correlate the two studies--not so easy to do since they are apples and oranges in terms of demographics and sample--one thing the recent survey does convey is potentially a pretty grim picture of what radio usage is like/will be like with the next generation. Maybe we should call them Gen T for Tech.

I hate being doom and gloom, but it is hard to paint a positive picture of the future when survey after survey tells a different tale. If we take the recent survey at face value, only 29% of today's Tweens use the radio an hour or more a day. And that can't be good for our future.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

How many habits you started as a tween do you still have now?

I can tell you that I spent a whole lot more time with music when I was a tween. A whole lot less now. Perhaps it's because the music now isn't as good as it was then. Perhaps my views on things have changed.

When I was a tween, I didn't spen any time on the internet. That's because it didn't exist. Now I spend more time on it than a typical tween. It's my job.

We can't make assumptions that behavior kids start in their teens will be continued through their life. Something is likely to replace the internet as the next big thing. We never expected the internet, and we won't anticipate its replacement. One thing we can expect: The next big thing will happen before today's tweens become adults.

Anonymous said...

And that will be...ROBOTS.

I'm only half kidding.

-Don