Teens and Technology - Pew Internet & American Life Project

Part 3. Technological and Social Contexts
Even though there is a discrepancy between teenagers’ perceptions of the people around
them depending on their parent’s online status, almost seven in ten teens whose parents
are not online still assert that most of the people they know are online (n=185). This
suggests that their perception of how wired the world is around them may be influenced
by other teens and adults outside of their own home.
Teens lead active offline lives.
Also as part of our survey, we wanted to find out about the types of offline recreational
activities teenagers participated in to better understand the organization and complexity
of teens’ daily lives. We asked all teens if they participate in any of four types of group
activities. These activities included a school club like a drama or language club, a school
sports program, an extracurricular activity like a band, or a club or sports program that is
not affiliated with a school such as a church youth group, recreation league, or volunteer
organization.
Of all teenagers, 83% say that they belong to at least one of these groups while only 17%
claim that they are not involved in any of these activities. More girls (87%) participate in
any one of these activities than boys (79%). Overall, 34% of teenagers say they are
involved with a school club, 48% with a school sports program, 41% with an
extracurricular activity, and 54% belong to a club or sports program not affiliated with
their school.
Most teens say they maintain robust networks of friends.
In addition to the participation in certain types of social activities, we included other
questions to further gauge the amount of social contact teenagers had. We asked teens to
estimate the number of friends they keep in touch with on a regular basis, meaning at
least once a week. The average for all the teens was 20 friends per teen. Older teens, aged
15-17, report keeping in touch with an average of 22 friends while teens aged 12-14
report an average of 17 friends. Boys also report keeping in touch with more friends with
an average of 22 friends while girls report an average of 17 friends.
Outside of school, teenagers average 10.26 hours per week of social activity with their
friends (with a median of 6 hours per week). Boys average slightly more, with 11.29
hours per week, while girls average 9.18 hours per week. Older teens, aged 15-17, also
report spending more time at 11.84 hours per week compared to teens aged 12-14 who
report spending 8.55 hours per week in social activities and with friends outside of
school.
Teens and Technology - 12 - Pew Internet & American Life Project