BANGALORE, INDIA: The use of social media has gained a greater foothold in teen life as they embrace the conversational nature of interactive online media, a report said.

The number of teen bloggers in the US nearly doubled from 2004 to 2006, the report, "Teen and Social Media," by Pew Internet and American Life Project said on Wednesday.

About 19 per cent of online teens blogged at the end of 2004 and 28 per cent of online teens were bloggers at the end of 2006.

Girls’ world

Girls dominated the blogosphere with 35 per cent of all online teen girls blog compared with 20 per cent of online teen blogs.

 “This gender gap for blogging has grown larger over time. Virtually all of the growth in teen blogging between 2004 and 2006 is due to the increased activity of girls,” the Pew report said.

The study further said that older teen girls (38 p.c.) were more likely to blog compared with older boys (18 p.c.).

However, “younger girl bloggers have grown at such a fast clip that they are now outpacing even older boys (32 p.c. of girls aged 12-14 vs. 18 p.c. of boys aged 15-17).”

Boys' too

Pew found that 57 per cent of online teens watched videos on video sharing sites. Older online boys aged 15-17 watched more videos than younger boys.

Online teen boys (19 p.c.) were likely to post more videos than girls (10 p.c.), the report said. “Not even older girls – a highly-wired and active segment of the teen population – can compete with boys in this instance; 21 per cent of older boys post videos, while just 10 per cent of older girls do so.”

Restricted access

The Project found that 39 per cent of online teens share their own artistic creations online. This showed an increase of 33 per cent from 2004.

Thirty-three per cent created or worked on Web pages for others, while 28 per cent created their own online journal or blog, up 19 per cent in 2004.

Besides the core elements of content creation, 55 per cent of online teens aged 12-17 have created a profile on social networking sites; 47 per cent have uploaded photos where others can see them, though many restrict access to photos in some way.

Interestingly, online adults were more lax in restricting access to their online photos. “Thirty-four per cent restrict most of the time, 24 per cent some of the time, and 39 per cent say they never restrict access to online photos."

Nearly nine in 10 teens who post photos online (89 p.c.) say that people comment at least sometimes on the photos they post,” the report said.

Communication lifeline

The landline is still a lifeline for teen social life. Multi-channel teens layer each new communications opportunity on top of pre-existing channels.

The report further said that e-mail continued to lose its luster among teens as texting, instant messaging and social networking sites facilitated more frequent contact with friends.

© CyberMedia News

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