The Pew Internet & American Life Project published the study, Teen Content Creators and Consumers, based on surveys of 1,100 U.S. youngsters ages 12 to 17. It found that:
33 percent of online teens share artwork, photos, stories, and video online; 32 percent have created Web sites for themselves or others; and 22 percent keep a personal Web page. Additionally, 19 percent report keeping their own blog or online journal; by contrast, a Pew study in 2004 found that just 7 percent of adult online users had created blogs.
For example, 75 percent of Livejournal’s four million users are in the 14-24 age group. Kevin Krim, the manager of the blogging platform confirms that teens are especially drawn to blogging because they view it as a way to shape identity.
They’re drawn to it because the teenage experience, if I were to make a generalization, is about creating an identity. These kids spend their time online anyway, so creating an online identity of their own is a huge deal for them. And we give them the tools to do that.
Exactly. Now imagine how these ‘digital natives’, used to creating their own content and making their own rule in the online world, are going to react to someone ‘delivering’ packaged ‘content’ trying to manipulate, influence or trick them into paying attention to the ‘message’. I do not think they’ll bother noticing. Apparently, marketers are dipping their toes into the pool of ‘consumer-generated content’:
I think there’s been that interesting question of, in particular, are brand advertisers comfortable with seeing their brands near community-created content, and I suspect that the marketers will start to see that community-created content is just a fact of online life.
Interesting, I’d say that content is generated by individuals and distributed by networks that may give rise to communities. It’s the top down approach sliding down the razorblade of the blogosphere….
opit
on Nov 4th, 2005
@ 3:55 am:
Referred by Samizdata today re: Digital Natives article. Hard to believe MSN and Digg are on the same web.
alan moore
on Nov 18th, 2005
@ 9:07 am:
Absolutely Adriana.
And I have another thought for you that within 10 years community will have replaced advertising as the primary medium for brands to engage with their customers.
You heard it here first.
Alan