The use of social media among US teens

Pew Internet has just published the results of a new survey called Teens and Social Media. It shows that US online teens increasingly are using the internet as a means to collaborate and to engage in conversations. Among the findings:

– 39% of online teens share their own artistic creations online, such as artwork, photos, stories, or videos, up from 33% in 2004.
– 33% create or work on webpages or blogs for others, including those for groups they belong to, friends, or school assignments, basically unchanged from 2004 (32%).
– 28% have created their own online journal or blog, up from 19% in 2004.
– 27% maintain their own personal webpage, up from 22% in 2004.
– 26% remix content they find online into their own creations, up from 19% in 2004.

Overall, girls seem to dominate the teen blogosphere in the US.

“35% of all online teen girls blog, compared with 20% of online teen boys. This gender gap for blogging has grown larger over time.”

Another interesting finding was that “Only 14% of all teens report sending emails to their friends every day, making it the least popular form of daily social communication on the list we queried.” Talk to friends on landline telephones is still the top channel.

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One in three teens contacted by strangers online

Pew Internet has a published a new report about online contacts. It says that “32% of online teens have been contacted by someone with no connection to them or any of their friends, and 7% of online teens say they have felt scared or uncomfortable as a result of contact by an online stranger. Several behaviors are associated with high levels of online stranger contact, including social networking profile ownership, posting photos online and using social networking sites to flirt. Although several factors are linked with increased levels of stranger contact in general, gender is the only variable with a consistent association with contact that is scary or uncomfortable–girls are much more likely to report scary or uncomfortable contact than boys.”

I haven’t had time to read the report but will try to as soon as possible.

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