• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, August 7, 2003

Reading Not Teens First Choice, By Far

Emarketer reports that Harris Interactive and Teenage Research Unlimited surveyed 2,618 people between the ages of 13 and 24 in June for Yahoo! and Carat and found that respondents spend twice as much time per week watching TV as reading books or magazines for pleasure.

Time Spent with Various Media Among Teenagers and Young Adults in the US, June 2003

	hours/week
Online (excluding email)	16.7
Watching TV	13.6
Listening to the radio	12.0
Talking on the phone	7.7
Reading books and mags (not scholastic)	6.0

Source: HarrisInteractive and Teenage Research Unlimited, July 2003

The survey determined that the main reason cited among respondents for spending so much time online was the quality of "control" the Internet affords users. Users can personalize and manage their experience online more so than with any other form of media.

As for the types of Web sites teenagers are spending time with, comScore Media Metrix determined at the end of 2002 that teens between the ages of 12 and 17 spend an average of 26.6 minutes each day with instant messaging (IM) applications, 24.4 minutes per day with game sites and a whopping 41.5 minutes per day on sites with some sort of corporate presence.

eMarketer projects that by the end of this year, roughly 17% of US Internet users will be between the ages of nine and 17 and about 29% will be between the ages of 18 and 34.

You can read more here.