More Than 15% of Teens Say They're On YouTube or TikTok 'Almost Constantly' (cnbc.com) 70
Nearly 1 in 5 teenagers in the U.S. say they use YouTube and TikTok "almost constantly," according to a Pew Research Center survey. CNBC reports: The survey showed that YouTube was the most "widely used platform" for U.S.-based teenagers, with 93% of survey respondents saying they regularly use Google's video-streaming service. Of that 93% figure, about 16% of the teenage respondents said they "almost constantly visit or use" YouTube, underscoring the video app's immense popularity with the youth market. TikTok was the second-most popular app, with 63% of teens saying they use the ByteDance-owned short-video service, followed by Snapchat and Meta's Instagram, which had 60% and 59%, respectively. About 17% of the 63% of respondents who said they use TikTok indicated they access the short-video service "almost constantly," the report noted.
Meanwhile, Facebook and Twitter, now known as X, are not as popular with U.S.-based teenagers as they were a decade ago, the Pew Research study detailed. Regarding Facebook in particular, the Pew Research authors wrote that the share of teens who use the Meta-owned social media app "has dropped from 71% in 2014-2015 to 33% today." During the same period, Meta-owned Instagram's usage has not made up the difference in share, increasing from 52% in 2014-15 to a peak of 62% last year, then dropping to 59% in 2023, according to the firm.
Meanwhile, Facebook and Twitter, now known as X, are not as popular with U.S.-based teenagers as they were a decade ago, the Pew Research study detailed. Regarding Facebook in particular, the Pew Research authors wrote that the share of teens who use the Meta-owned social media app "has dropped from 71% in 2014-2015 to 33% today." During the same period, Meta-owned Instagram's usage has not made up the difference in share, increasing from 52% in 2014-15 to a peak of 62% last year, then dropping to 59% in 2023, according to the firm.
Before the old grumps chime in (Score:1)
They're trying to escape reality because reality is really really bad for them. As a nerd I can relate. Remember reading a quote from the writer Gore Vidal where he talked about losing interest in fiction because the real world was more interesting to him. But at the same time
Re:Before the old grumps chime in (Score:5, Interesting)
The problem isn't that kids are focused on a "thing". It is that when they don't have that thing they are lost.
Take away the phone/ipad/computer/internet from most of those kids for any length of time and they lose their shit and get fidgety like a drug addict who needs their fix. I've seen it. Currently in long term detox process in my home and seen her friends behave the same and hear it from many other parents.
Reality is not bad for these kids. They're top 10%ers in this country which makes them top 1%er for the planet. They're loved, taken care of, get good grades, aren't on drugs, pregnant, getting beaten or raped or anything else that happens in shitty places to kids. They do not need an escape from reality. They need an escape _to_ reality from the false world they're getting on the net.
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Congrats. I've got 2.5 years to go. Sex isn't happening here yet unless it's in the school bathroom which she complains are disgusting. Her ideal day is staying alone in her room on a device playing a game or video chatting with her friends from another state or chatting with them during a game. No interest in parties, going anywhere, etc etc. All net, all the time. The net has magnified her naturally introverted nature into what I consider an unhealthy place. But been working on it and making progre
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If this was a real site with real editors people would lose their mod points for flagging things like the above as troll.
But it isn't. So there we are.
Re:Before the old grumps chime in (Score:5, Insightful)
Currently in long term detox process in my home
imagine your old man telling you to youre spending too much time on the internet whilst hes posts 20-30 times a day on slashdot
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nice comeback
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Thanks, I hope I provide you and everyone else as much entertainment as y'all provide me.
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careful tho that you dont get sucked into this false world on the net, youve been on it all day
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No, I've been driving my mother around to multiple doctors appointments all day. I've been on here 20 minutes.
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You can tell it's light entertainment for him because he always has to have the last word.
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My ocd mentally ill stalker has re-emerged.
Haven't found a good therapist yet, I see.
Re:Before the old grumps chime in (Score:4, Insightful)
You are my light entertainment. I've got no problem doing other things,
We've heard this line from every addict in history. You're not fooling anyone, especially not with your username.
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My username is 100% on target. I am way smarter than you. I am also a blazing fucking idiot. You do the math on that.
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Dude, you just described my kid perfectly with 1&2. She has had to work through social conflicts with her friends. The rest is 100% spot on. #3 hasn't really come up. Teaching her to drive is next so we'll see how that goes soon.
And as far as not needing anything goes, I do provide everything. It's hard not to as a parent even though I'm perfectly aware I shouldn't make it that easy. I make her do random made up chores I don't really need her to do to create some sense of responsibility and value
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Dude, you just described my kid perfectly with 1&2. She has had to work through social conflicts with her friends. The rest is 100% spot on. #3 hasn't really come up.
That number 3 is a godsend. I figure out how to do stuff every day. Take for example I have picked up woodturning and flatwork as a hobby, (I think it is required for old dudes) and without mentors, it's a darn handy substitute, and I've even made friends with some of the guys and gals that are doing all this.
Strange that AC thinks it is a bad thing.
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Seems to me number 3 is a benefit for kids today as well. It's easily obtained instructions that lets one do things for ones self. It's really not any different than going to the library for help either, it's just a lot easier.
You can more or less tell the AC above is a bit of a dipshit though as there's no need to slander completely uninvolved users as they've done to make ones point on this topic.
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Seems to me number 3 is a benefit for kids today as well. It's easily obtained instructions that lets one do things for ones self. It's really not any different than going to the library for help either, it's just a lot easier.
You can more or less tell the AC above is a bit of a dipshit though as there's no need to slander completely uninvolved users as they've done to make ones point on this topic.
One of the worst things about todays internet is the amount of people who only believe the worst of it.
I'm a firm believe in finding out the bad stuff, and avoiding it, but despite the doomers - Youtube is one of my best resources.
And number 1 and 2? Crap. My kid grew up during the early modern internet. He's a gamer, but also builds his own computers. He had lots of things to keep him busy, like travel hockey, and even band.
I made certain he had a lot to do.
And I'll be pilloried for this, but th
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Oops, I guess rsilvergun was the grand parent here. Never the less he certainly didnt mention making kids property of the state.
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The problem isn't that kids are focused on a "thing". It is that when they don't have that thing they are lost.
If I swapped out all your light bulbs for kerosene lamps you'd probably be pretty pissed, too. YouTube is just the modern version of television, and small handheld TVs were a thing even when I was a kid. [wikipedia.org]
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When I was a kid we all watched plenty of tv. But only when there was nothing else to do. We didn't watch tv in preference to all other options. We didn't fidget and fuss and have no idea what to do with ourselves if the tv was off.
Ymmv.
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That's mostly because you'd only be able to watch so much TV before there'd be nothing worth watching at the time on any of the channels. Course, my generation had a fix for that too: the VCR.
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The problem isn't that kids are focused on a "thing". It is that when they don't have that thing they are lost.
If I swapped out all your light bulbs for kerosene lamps you'd probably be pretty pissed, too. YouTube is just the modern version of television, and small handheld TVs were a thing even when I was a kid. [wikipedia.org]
I remember when the only thing we had was Woodburning Televisions.
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They're not focusing on "a thing" (Score:3)
And you can cool it with the "Starving Kids in China" bullshit. Just because somebody has it worse than me when I was a kid didn't mean the bullies left me alone, didn't make the autism symptoms go away and didn't make my mom stop drinking.
And if their doing so fucking great why the hell do you care if they spend a lot of time on YouTube? You're working backwards from your conclusion because you're an old fart angry at
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That's not what empathy fatigue looks like (Score:3)
It's especially bad with the current old farts because we know damn well we left the worst planet than what we were given and we did so for the stupidest fucking reasons imaginable. And the last thing we want to do in our Twil
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That was kinda my point (Score:2)
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I know the kids today have a very different world than the one I grew up in, "better?", "worse?", I don't know, I do know it is different and as a famous philosopher once said, the thinking that got you into this mess, is not the same thinking that will get you out of it (I paraphrase).
looking at what kids are doing today, (mostly) helping each other, bein
4 to 14 (Score:2)
So you end up in a situation where in order for our species to progress the previous generation
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When I was a kid, the closest I came to escaping from the world I was put in was reading a book. I watched very little television, there was no internet, and I spent a lot of my free time outside with friends Nowadays, I spend way too much time watching TV and reading posts like yours on the internet. So I don't think things are actually the same.
So I think you're kind of missing the point (Score:2)
The kids who are escaping the real world are escaping it entirely. It's not just a matter of
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Take away the phone/ipad/computer/internet from most of those kids for any length of time and they lose their shit and get fidgety like a drug addict who needs their fix. I've seen it. Currently in long term detox process in my home and seen her friends behave the same and hear it from many other parents.
Yup. My recently turned 17 niece doesn't just want, but *needs* her phone -- apparently so she can constantly skip through very partial viewings of YouTube and TikTok videos, and songs.
Gore Vidal? (Score:1)
What death metal band was he in?
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They're trying to escape reality because reality is really really bad for them.
Reality check. Life is better now than it has ever been in the history of humankind.
The worst thing about life now is people like you complaining about how bad life is so that your masters can promise to MAGA if we just give them MOAR POWAR...
W/ 50% lying through their teeth lol (Score:2)
At least according to a fact I just made up... People are on their phone a lot
Are your kids watching too much TV, film at 11:00! (Score:3)
YouTube is basically the equivalent of TV now, except you get to watch what interests you rather than what's spoon fed to you by a team of programmers. I watch quite a bit of it myself and I'm 50!
Shows on how to repair retro computers, how to build a deck / fence / small shed in the backyard, how to safely use a resin 3d printer, battle reports of the games that use the minis I just 3d printed, watching a city planner play Cities Skylines and learning why cities are built the way they are, etc... There's a tonne of interesting content on there these days, commercials are short(ish) and often skipable after 10-15 seconds.
All this is just the same "moral panic" parents had when I was a kid about kids watching too much TV, or them new fangled BBSes, or playing D&D, or listening to KISS albums backwards so you can get the secret messages from Satan. My only concern is that some parents aren't going to be as good at media literacy as others, if their kids aren't being properly monitored they're gonna start watching some pretty sketchy shit that'll teach them that reality isn't real or go down the "manosphere" incel crackpot conspiracy nutter rabbit hole.
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No, kids need to be given BB guns so they can go outside and shoot squirrels for entertainment. Won't someone think of the overpopulation of tree-dwelling rodents? /s
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YouTube is basically the equivalent of TV now, except you get to watch what interests you rather than what's spoon fed to you by a team of programmers. I watch quite a bit of it myself and I'm 50!
Shows on how to repair retro computers, how to build a deck / fence / small shed in the backyard, how to safely use a resin 3d printer, battle reports of the games that use the minis I just 3d printed, watching a city planner play Cities Skylines and learning why cities are built the way they are, etc... There's a tonne of interesting content on there these days, commercials are short(ish) and often skipable after 10-15 seconds.
All this is just the same "moral panic" parents had when I was a kid about kids watching too much TV, or them new fangled BBSes, or playing D&D, or listening to KISS albums backwards so you can get the secret messages from Satan.
I disagree. Your use of the Internet is that of a mind born in the 1900s, shaped by things like experiential learning, unavoidable downtime, machines and electronics that didn't work well and were entirely user-fixable with the tools in your dad's shed, systems that did not adapt or anticipate to you whatsoever, etc.
Your brain spent the formative first 30 years of its existence being forced to synthesize and internalize knowledge. So yes, to you 10 hours of daily Internet usage seems fine -- you're using it
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Survey says .... (Score:2)
Other surveys have shown that 1% of teenagers have used the drug zetacyllin .... however it doesn't exist ...
And So Do The Fat Women Driving SUV's (Score:2)
Down the highway. In the fast last lane. Swerving. And going slow.
Then I pass them and look over through the window and there they are. Having fun on cellphone driving down the highway.
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Pretty much the EXACT same nonsense spouted around National Lampoon and Mad
So kindly fuck off, you mouth-breathing fuckwit.
Inept, delusional, parenting detected. Engage "it's everybody else at fault!" shield.
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National Lampoon and Mad were corrupting the youth with counter-culture and satire. Which was a very good thing. Being able to openly mock popular culture and mainstream religious leaders that have a stick up their ass is incredibly important work.
Where things went off the rails is when we put psychologist on the task of designing advertising campaigns to market to children. We made cartoon series just to sell plastic crap to children, multiple 30 minute commercials running every Saturday morning, then also
Just teens? (Score:2)
My mother in her 70s watches 4-5 hours of it. I just have to tell her about information hygiene.
Almost everyone watches it. The point is watching what? The recommendation algorithms are not healthy for us, and there is a lot of junk, but you can get almost an entire education off it.
Addicted (Score:3)
I thought I was a television addict when I was a teenager. With my addictive personality, if I were a teenager today I would be doomed. I'd go through withdrawal pains every time I put the phone down. Word of warning: never give a teenager a smart phone! So they'll be unpopular because all their friends have the smart phones. It might keep them from getting pregnant, fathering children, or catching STD's. Also, feed them lots of food so they get fat and no one wants to have sex with them. Well, maybe that logic wouldn't work with girls because from my experience it was the fat girls who were "easy."
I'm not buying it (Score:2)
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How did they have time to participate in the survey then?
Browser tabs.
Looks down that dark, smelly alley (Score:2)
How's Tumblr doing?