Children vs Adult use of the Internet and Digital Media [#DigitalInsights]

...at least not as well as the 14 or 15 year old Digital Natives...

This  Ofcom research on the Digital Day sheds some interesting behavioural insight on how children and Youth audiences engage with digital activity compared to adults. These are the 'Digital Natives' which give us a future view of how digital media will be used.

Over half of children's time is spent communicating via text, instant and photo messaging - this contrasts to 1/4 of the time spent by adults.  In terms of social networking sites, 11-15 year olds spend twice as much time as adults.

So, when it comes to .. how much time do 11-15 year olds spend on media and communication activities? Certainly, the differences in time spent on Email and Text between adults and younger audiences is dramatic.

As mentioned earlier, this age group prefer to instant message or text their network, and 30% of their media consumption takes place between 6am to 6pm. In terms of media overall, they watch few programmes on the TV itself, though this could be distorted by the use of tablets and mobile devices. Looking at their activity, the young digital natives spend a high proportion of their time playing games as shown:

What does earlier research tell us about the use of digital communications by demographics?

Ofcom researched over 2,000 adults and 800 children to find out the differences in technology usage and interests, and their Communications Report which we summarised in August 2014 in our post How important are digital communications?

Ofcom's research assigns a digital quotient score based on knowledge, use and confidence of digital technology, with the average UK adult scoring 100.

Did you know the 'millennium generation of the 14-15 year olds are the most technologically savvy in the UK' and it peaks until our late 50s, then declines beyond 60?

The research publishes some other interesting facts about the lifestyle and interests of the demographics and disturbing news that we spend more time using media and communications than sleeping:

• People still read books, listen to CDs and watch DVDs despite the usage of technology and the most popular media for adults is books.
• CDS are least popular amongst 60% of 16-24 year olds - probably due to the accessibilty to download music which is quite different to the 45-54 year olds who listen to CDs.

What are the implications? If you're a brand targeting the younger age group, you are probably already following the interests of this group by researching their interests or even crowdsourcing to get their content creation skills on your team.

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