Teen addiction to screens is reshaping their behavior … and ours
The standard interpretation of heredity is that we pass on our genetics to our children. They literally inherit both the good and bad from our DNA. Since the 1960s, there has been a humorous saying that reverses the heredity paradigm as the paradox for parents coping with raising children, especially teenagers. While teenagers definitely create "insane chaos" at times, they are also passing along behaviors and expectations that are impacting their parents. Youth today use devices with screens for more than 6.5 hours per day! The sheer volume of time that kids spend interacting with media is creating a 24/7 mentality of "always on". Generation Z is not only driving their parents crazy, they changing expectations for retailers.
Why this is important: Tweens and teens are tomorrow's retail customers. Their behaviors are significantly different from anything seen in the past. Marketers and retailers will soon face the realities and pitfalls of "multitasking as the new normal".
Generation Z - Tweens and teens screen addiction
With today's busy lifestyles, careers and the pressures of raising a family, no parent can begin to comprehend what their kids are doing on their devices. Typical parents want their kids to succeed in school and life. So, they buy them the latest gadgets early in childhood. We have posted previously how toddlers can become obsessed with tablets before they can even walk or talk. By the time today's kids are tweens, they are addicted to "screens".
Today's kids spend over 50 hours every week viewing a screen!
The salient issue is not just the number of hours of media consumption, but the fact that today's kids can control every aspect of their media consumption: who, what, when and where. This new level of personalized interaction changes everything … especially behaviors and expectations for an "always on" 24/7 reality. To borrow a metaphor from the movie "Minority Report" … today's kids have a multiscreen view, of unlimited media, they control.
The mind boggling stats: Media use by Tweens and Teens
Common Sense is a nonprofit group focused on helping kids, their parents and teachers cope in a world of media and technology. Common Sense conducted a 2015 study of 2,658 kids in the US age 8 to 18 years. You can view the entire study results at Common Sense Media, but their Infographic summarizes some amazing stats regarding tweens and teens behavior!
Source: Common Sense Media (2015) Common Sense Census: Media Use by Tweens and Teens.
Just look at that chart above and realize what these numbers mean. There are only 24 hours in a day. Tweens spend 25% and Teens spend 42% of their entire day using/consuming media … excluding homework! They spend far more time viewing screens than they do interacting with family.
Source: Common Sense Media (2015) Common Sense Census: Media Use by Tweens and Teens.
Tweens and teens have always been passionate about music and movies, so it is not surprising that a significant share of media time is still devoted to consuming entertainment. Youth only spend 3% of media time on "creation" (homework is counted separately). Tweens and teens spend more than half of their media time playing, browsing and interacting. Those beloved portable screens now make consumptions possible anytime and everywhere … including in school and at the dinner table, which drives both parents and teachers crazy.
No, not all tweens and teens are the same. There are different patterns of media and screen behavior by ethnicity, gender etc. Check out the following stats for male – female differences:
Source: Common Sense Media (2015) Common Sense Census: Media Use by Tweens and Teens.
Multitasking is the New Normal
The title of this blog is a humorous reference to relationship of kids and parents in general. With today's youth, their media consumption levels and screen addiction can literally drive parents crazy! A primary source of parental frustration is that their kids believe, embrace and live a "multitasking culture". High hours of media consumption is in fact related to doing multiple activities simultaneously.
Two thirds of the teenagers reported that they "multitask while doing homework". They are supposed to be reading a lesson or doing math, but they are texting friends, watching TV and checking Facebook … at the same time! Not only do they report they are multitasking, they also state that they believe this "helps them study"! They believe that their brains are "wired for multitasking", and that is how to get things done productively (although there is considerable research to the contrary).
The crucial point is that youth have adapted behaviors to navigate the fire hose of media at their disposal, and they now believe multitasking is the new normal for society, family life … and shopping.
What does all of this mean for retailers?
Today's tweens and teens are tomorrow's core customers. In fact, today's kids living in a household already have tremendous influence on that household's purchasing patterns. The kids also greatly influence how families consume media, react to marketing, and discover new products.
While we as parents and grandparents might not "inherit insanity" from our kids, we are rapidly adopting many of their behaviors and patterns. Many adults now see "multitasking" as the path to greater productivity, so they are "on" their phones connecting while at dinner, or in a store.
The bottom line for retailers that they must adapt to even shorter attention spans, focused on mobile screens, with more "always on" multitasking.
Some of the ways retailers need to adapt include:
- Much shorter commercials and more focused promotions
- Ads and offers placed in more places, especially beyond traditional media
- Rich, multimedia content geared to mobile devices
- Social media not as a prime purchase point, but place to validate choices
- Purchase is a process and journey, not a point of sale in store
- The consumer is in control of media: when, where and how
- The consumer is the 'point of sale": they decide where and when
What this means for parents … and the rest of us
Each generation of parents has faced the task of raising those "crazy" kids. But with Gen Z, it is perhaps truly a greater challenge in that parents can't just select which books to read, or turn the TV off. Preschoolers know how to search. Tweens and teens literally have unlimited worldwide access … and they spend far more hours consuming media than they do sleeping … or anything else.
Parents need to become more engaged than ever before:
- Parents must first understand what is possible with today's screens and media
- Parents need to explore and evaluate what their kids are consuming
- When possible, they need to engage WITH kids side by side
- Parents still have the responsibility to establish "rules for the digital road"
- Parents are role models … they must be willing to put their phones down at dinner and ask everyone else to do the same.
A great place for parent and grandparents to start would be to visit CommonSenseMedia.org. They not only conduct great research, they have some great family guides and teaching resources on how to engage with today's "screen addicted, hyper multitaskers on media overload" (aka that kid that won't look up from his phone/tablet at dinner).
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Sources:
- Common Sense Media
- The Common Sense Census: Infographic
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