Many of the tech trends among Irish teenagers include social networking usage, mobile preferences, online media consumption and internet purchasing habits, a survey suggests.
Cork and Dublin-based Mulley Communication conducted the survey with 100 teenagers aged between 13 and 19.
“While we may speculate on how teenagers consume and pay for media, this survey was designed by teenagers and distributed by them so I hope this is reflective of what interests them,” said Damien Mulley of Mulley Communications
“We have a country full of people, not even finished school yet, who can run rings around us when it comes to usage of digital media.
“There’s lots of talk of smart economies but maybe we should get our digital natives to dictate some policies to us for a change. After all, it was digitally savvy kids who were the founders of Facebook and so many other start-ups,” said Mulley.
Communications
The survey found mobile phones are the most treasured items in teens’ possession, and 74pc access the internet through their phones.
Some 44pc of teenagers are on the Meteor network. The most common phone was found to be from Nokia, however, 66pc of teenagers want an iPhone.
Fifty-six per cent of survey participants communicated with their friends through text, while 38pc chatted to them through Facebook. Email was still somewhat popular, with 27pc of teenagers corresponding with friends through this channel.
For social networking, 97pc of teenagers use Facebook, with Twitter following at 60pc and Bebo coming in third with 46pc.
Fifty-one per cent of teenagers worry about sharing too much information online, but say they maintain their social-networking services, anyway.
Online purchases
Music and concert tickets were the most purchased products among teenagers and most borrowed their parents’ credit or laser cards to buy goods online.
Piracy was not as common as expected. Half of participants said they bought music in-store and 46pc said they also bought music on iTunes.
Fifty-one per cent downloaded music without paying for it and 43pc borrowed CDs from friends.
Some 73pc said their music recommendations came from friends and 68pc said they also took recommendations from the radio.
Television
The survey showed a growing trend of young people choosing when they wanted to watch television through online channels as opposed to watching it as it aired.
Forty-four per cent of teenagers stream TV shows through iPlayer or RTE player. Some 41pc of survey participants said they stream media online in general, and 20pc of teenagers said they download television shows on their laptops to watch them.
