• by Erik Sass , Staff Writer, November 19, 2015

In the words of Roger Daltry, “the kids are alright.” While many of us old (30+) people tend to picture teenagers as being more or less enslaved by their mobile devices and social media in particular, young people are actually developing strategies to moderate their usage, including taking breaks and even deleting social media apps, according to a new study by market research firm Wildness publicized by Social Times.

Wildness, which launched in September as an offshoot of AwesomenessTV, interviewed members of “Gen Z” (born 1995 or after) about their behaviors and attitudes regarding mobile devices and social media. A large majority (nine out of ten) respondents said they try to take breaks from their mobile devices, including 54% who take a break every day. Furthermore, seven out of ten members of Gen Z said they have deleted social media apps like Twitter, Vine, and Facebook.

The stereotypical view of teens over-sharing or posting content without thinking about the consequences may also be unfair: 77% said they carefully consider the possible effects of what they share before posting content.

In terms of social media preferences, Facebook is indeed less popular amongst younger teens, with 44% of respondents ages 12-14 using it regularly, compared to twice that proportion among respondents ages 22-24.

Turning to marketing uses, Wildness also found that 31% of Gen Z respondents watch videos from their favorite brands on YouTube, while 30% said they follow their favorite brands and view their posts on social media. Overall nine out of ten said they watch videos on YouTube daily.