Journal 2 - How Teenagers Consume Media (NETS 5)

Robson, Matthew (13 July, 2009). How teenagers consume media: the report that shook the city. Guardian, Retrieved July 16, 2009, from http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/jul/
13/teenage-media-habits-morgan-stanley

This article, from the Guardian Newspaper in London, assesses the media consumption habits of English teenagers. Radio, newspaper and TV consumption are on the wane. Most consumption habits are done in the cheapest manner because of lack of funds. Money is spent on movies, music and games unless they can be had for free. Piracy is common. Twitter has no appeal to them, they tend to focus their consumption on entertainment, there is almost universal access to the internet, and social networking is very big. This report was created for Morgan Stanley in order to understand the consumer habits of teenagers. It shows that consumers in this age bracket are very reluctant to spend their meager assets and are very resourceful in finding other ways to get what they want.

Question 1: How relevant is this article to American Teenagers?
Answer: This research was most likely done only in the metropolitan London area so the transferability of this data to the US overall is questionable. It is probably fairly accurate if used for cosmopolitan cities that have extensive technological infrastructures. It is most likely an accurate assessment if used for North San Diego County cities because of the higher median incomes there. Talking to Professor Heil on this subject the other day I learned that even the lowest socio-economic members of San Diego have access to the internet somewhere. My own experience is that many if not most children have cell phones and the popularity of them increases with age.

Question 2: How can I use this information for teaching?
Answer: Habits of teenagers are different from younger children. Although younger kids may have same interests and technology usage habits as older siblings (where technology transfer would be high) not every elementary age child has access to a high technology user. The teaching with technology would have to start at a very basic level and many students will be bored with the slow pace of teaching. Many technologies seem to have possibilities for teaching even though they may be uninteresting to teens (eg: Twitter) Others seem to have little place in the elementary age classroom even though they are popular with teens (eg:Facebook). So, even though this article was very interesting, it seems to have little relevance to the classroom because the interests of teens in their own time has little to do with the interests of teachers in the elementary school classroom.