Media Use By Tweens and Teens

This large-scale study explores how kids age 8 to 18 in the U.S. use media across an array of activities and devices—including short-form, mobile-friendly platforms like YouTube—to see where they spend their time and what they enjoy most. Combined with the data from the 2015 report, the 2019 census gives us a clearer view of how young people's media use has evolved over time. The results speak to the individualized uses of media and the increase in time spent with personalized content on social media and in online videos—and the way shared family viewing and other formative media experiences are changing as a result. 

KEY FINDINGS 

1. On average, 8- to 12-year-olds in this country use just under five hours’ worth of entertainment screen media per day (4:44), and teens use an average of just under seven and a half hours’ worth (7:22)—not including time spent using screens for school or homework. Among tweens, the total amount of screen media used has stayed relatively steady over the past four years (an eight-minute increase from 4:36, not a statistically significant difference). Among teens, the amount of time devoted to several individual screen activities has ticked up slightly, leading to an overall difference of 42 minutes per day compared to 2015, when total screen use was 6:40 (this change is not statistically significant). Among teenagers, nearly two-thirds (62%) use more than four hours’ worth of screen media, including nearly three in 10 (29%) who use more than eight hours of screen media in a day. Total average media time, including non-screen media activities such as reading books and listening to music, is 5:54 for tweens and 9:49 for teens. 

2. Online video viewing is through the roof: More than twice as many young people watch videos every day than did in 2015, and the average time spent watching has roughly doubled. The biggest change in young people’s media habits over the past four years isn’t something brand new like virtual reality; it’s the amount of time they spend watching online videos like those found on YouTube. The percent of young people who say they watch online videos “every day” has more than doubled among both age groups, going from 24% to 56% among 8- to 12-year-olds, and from 34% to 69% among 13- to 18-year-olds. And the amount of time each age group spends watching online videos has gone from about a half hour a day to about an hour a day on average (from 25 to 56 minutes a day among tweens, and from 35 to 59 minutes a day among teens). 

YouTube clearly dominates the online video space among both tweens and teens. Despite the fact that YouTube says it is only for those age 13 or older, 76% of 8- to 12-year-olds say they use the site. By comparison, only 23% say they watch YouTube Kids. In fact, 53% of 8- to 12-year-olds say YouTube is the site they watch “the most,” compared to just 7% for YouTube Kids. Watching online videos has become so popular among tweens that it is now the media activity they enjoy the most, with 67% saying they enjoy it “a lot”; four years ago, watching online videos was fifth in enjoyment among tweens, after TV, music, video games, and mobile games. In fact, even among teenagers, watch-ing videos now comes second in enjoyment (topped only by listening to music), beating out video games, TV, and even social media by quite a bit (58% enjoy watching online videos “a lot,” compared to 43% for playing video games, 41% for using social media, and 33% for watching TV).  

3. There has been a large drop in the amount of time both tweens and teens spend watching TV on a television set.Despite a renaissance in television programming for adults, TV seems to be losing favor among young people: Among tweens, the percent who say they enjoy watching TV “a lot” has dropped from 61% to 50%, and among teens from 45% to 33%, over the past four years. Both tweens and teens watch about a half hour less of TV on a TV set today than they did four years ago (25 minutes less per day among tweens, and 24 minutes less among teens).Even among shows watched on a television set, most viewing is now time-shifted (see Figure C). Today teens average 42 minutes a day watching time-shifted TV on a TV set (such as through a DVR, on demand, or a subscription service like Netflix), 38 minutes watching TV on other devices, and just 25 minutes watching programming on a TV set as it is aired (down from 54 minutes a day on average in 2015).  

4. By age 11, a majority (53%) of kids have their own smartphone, and by 12 more than two-thirds (69%) do.Smartphone ownership has risen dramatically, even among the youngest tweens (see Figure D). In fact, nearly one in five 8-year-olds (19%) have their own smartphone, an increase from 11% in 2015. Smartphone ownership has grown substantially over the past four years among all ages, increasing from 24% of all 8- to 12-year olds in 2015 to 41% today, and from 67% to 84% among 13- to 18-year-olds .  

5. There are substantial differences in the amount of screen media young people use based on socioeconomic status. Tweens from higher-income homes use an hour and 50 minutes less screen media per day than those from lower-income house-holds (3:59 vs. 5:49, as shown in Figure F). The difference among teens is similar (an hour and 43 minutes a day, from 6:49 among higher-income households to 8:32 among lower-income homes)