NASBE

National Association of State Boards of Education
Technology Use
By the Numbers: The Current Context of Students’ Digital Lives
77% of 12- to 17-year-olds own cell phones, with 23% of those being smartphones—statistics that do not vary by race, ethnicity, or socioeconomic status. 5
Minority 8- to 18-year-olds (black, Hispanic, and Asian) consume an average of four-and-a-half more hours of media each day than white youth of the same
age, regardless of socioeconomic status or if they are living in a single- or two-parent family. 6
68% say that send text messages every day. 7
o The average teenager sends 60 text messages a day, up from 50 daily texts just two years ago. 8
o Older teen girls send more texts than any other group, an average of 100 daily, compared with 50 daily texts from boys of the same age. 9
49% of teenagers surveyed reported that talking to others in person is still their favorite way to communicate. 10
33% of teenagers say that texting is their favorite way to communicate. 11
22% of American 13- to 17-year-olds have a Twitter account, with 11% tweeting daily. 12
Social Media Use
90% of American 13- to 17-year-olds report having used social media. 13
75% of American teens have a social networking site, with
o 51% visiting their profile daily and
o 34% visiting several times a day. 14
68% of American 13- to 17-year-olds say Facebook is their most frequently used social network site. 15
Most teens who have a social media profile (62%) say it is most often set to be private, only sharing content with their friends. 16
59% of 14- to 17-year-olds say they have reconsidered posting something online after they thought about the possible negative implications, while
only 46% of 12- to 13-year-olds reported the same. 17
Impact of Social Media
When American teenagers were asked how they feel about social networking:
o 29% said it makes them feel less shy,
o 15% said it makes them feel better about themselves,
o 28% said it makes them feel more outgoing,
o 20% said it makes them feel more confident,
o 19% said it makes them feel more popular,
o 19% said it makes them feel more sympathetic to others, and
o 5% said social networking makes them feel less outgoing, shyer (3%), and worse about themselves (4%). 18
69% of teenagers who use social media think their peers are mostly kind to each other on these sites, but 20% say that the interactions are mostly unkind and
88% have seen someone be mean or cruel to another person on a social network site. 19
52% of teenagers say social media has mainly helped their relationships with friends, while only 4% say it has mainly hurt their relationships with friends. 20
37% say it has helped their relationships with family members, while only 2% say it has hurt their relationships with family members. 21
88% of teenagers report using social media to keep in touch with friends they can’t see regularly and 69% use social media to get to know other students at
their school better. 22
Technology Use for Schoolwork
30% of students in grades 6-8 and 46% of students in grades 9-12 are using sites such as Facebook and YouTube to collaborate with each other on school
projects.
32 – 39% of students would like their schools to provide tools for communicating with their classmates, organizing their schoolwork, communicating with their
teachers, and collaborating with their classmates on school assignments.
Students also wish they had school-wide Internet access, safe chat rooms to discuss course materials with their classmates, and school portals that provide timely
access to key school and class information. 23
36% of students that indicated they were interested in online learning also said reading digital text was better for their personal learning style. However, only
28% of all students surveyed felt the same way. 24
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