SXSW Interactive - “What Teens Want Online & On Their Phones”
The “What Teens Want Online” panel consisted of one adult and a half dozen teens talking about their online and mobile habits.
The panel started out with the young panelists listing the websites they like to use and why. The common theme was personal interests (finding music), personal expression (profiles), and news (gaming, music).
“I don’t really use that avatar stuff,” said one teen panelist.
The panel reinforced a trend I’ve seen elsewhere that teens are not a rich demographic for virtual worlds.
Runescape and GAIA were the only specific virtual worlds/MMOs liked by the panelists, but it was clear they don’t use them much. Zwinky was mentioned by two panelists as being dull. Pay to play was a common objection to other worlds and games.
It was clear that the teens do not use social software for broadening their network of friends. While MySpace and FaceBook were ubitquitous, specialized social networks like Last.fm, iLike.com, Flickr, Twitter and Photobucket are not popular. When I asked a few of the panelists afterwards about these sites, only a few knew of Photobucket and made limited use of it.
On the mobile front, there was consensus that instant messaging has been replaced with unlimited SMS messaging. Aside from SMS, panelists use their phones for wallpapers, ringtones, games and photo sharing.
March 12th, 2008 17:51
I suspect this means we haven’t found the right way to present avatars and virtual spaces to teens, not that they’re fundamentally irrelevant to that demographic. Focus groups with teens are great for finding out what they do among the current choices but not that useful for figuring out what they would do if things were different. I suspect if avatars were very emotive, provided a forum for self-expression, and were used easily on mobile phones for text, voice, gifting, and other interactions, they might be quite popular.
March 13th, 2008 10:56
I think there’s something to your thoughts Sibley, but I also think that teen and especially college years are when humans are especially active in building their real world network and real world identity. Sub-12 and Post20 are easier demographics in many ways, but as you say, perhaps the right innovation approaches could solve that.