Though the overall number of blogging teenagers has risen, far more girls than boys between the ages of 12 and 17 have blogs. But don’t expect them to email you about it.
The numbers come from Pew Internet’s “Teens and Social Media” report, which details the results of a phone survey of nearly 1,000 teens conducted in December 2006.
Nearly two-thirds (64%) of online teenagers create some kind of content, up from 57 percent two years earlier. Since that previous study, the percentage of online teens that have blogs rose from 19 percent in 2004 to 28 percent. Young girls are leading the way in that respect, with 35 percent of them blogging, compared to just 20 percent of online boys.
Girls are also more likely to post photographs online, with 54 percent of them doing so, compared to 40 percent of teenage boys. In contrast, boys appear to have moved on from blogging and photos and have gone straight into online video. Teen boys are almost twice as likely as girls to have posted a video online (19% vs. 10%).
One thing neither of them are really doing, though, is emailing. This is especially true of the 28 percent that are considered multi-channel teens, or so-called “super-communicators” who use a variety of communication methods – landline phones, cell phones, texting, social networking, instant messaging, and email – to maintain contact with friends and family.
Pew found that:
70% talk daily with friends on a cell phone
60% send text messages daily
54% instant message
47% send messages daily over social network sites
46% talk to friends on a landline phone
35% spend time with friends in person daily
22% send email every day to friends
“Access to social networks and cell phones has opened up new channels for today’s teens,” said Mary Madden, Senior Research Specialist and an author of the report. “New technology increases the overall intensity and frequency of their communication with friends, with email being the one glaringly uncool exception in their eyes.”
You hear that? Uncool.
