Teens and Technology - Pew Internet & American Life Project

Part 3.
Technological and Social Contexts
Beyond understanding the conditions of internet access inside the home, it is important to
understand how the internet and other communication technologies fit into teens’ external
environments and increasingly complex lives. For most teenagers, technology plays a
crucial role in their everyday lives, and the internet is the backbone of their overall media
milieu. For our investigation of teenagers, we wanted to discover the content and context
of their technological surroundings and how it relates to their daily offline experience.
The vast majority of teenagers own some type of media device.
As part of our survey, we asked teens whether or not they had any of four types of
devices that can be connected to the internet: desktop computers, laptop computers, cell
phones, and personal digital devices such as Sidekicks or Blackberries. An overwhelming
majority of all teenagers, 84%, report they had at least one of these four types of devices.
Forty-four percent say they have two or more of these devices while 12% have three and
2% report having all four. Only 16% of all teens report that they do not have any of these
devices at all.
Device ownership does not differ significantly for boys and girls. However, as might be
expected, older teenagers have more devices than younger teenagers. Eighty-eight
percent of teenagers aged 15-17 have at least one of the media devices while 79% of
teenagers aged 12-14 do. Fifty-three percent of teenagers aged 15-17 report having two
or more types of devices compared to 36% of teenagers aged 12-14. Yet, the biggest
difference in device ownership for teens by age is for cell phones. About one-third of
teens aged 12-14 have a cell phone compared to 57% of teens aged 15-17.
There is also a substantial variation in device ownership among teens with online parents
compared to those with offline parents. Eighty-eight percent of teenagers with an online
parent have at least one device and 47% have at least two devices. That compares to 69%
of teens with offline parents who have at least one device and 35% who have two or
more devices.
Teens and Technology - 9 - Pew Internet & American Life Project