The youth of today

- Not as complicated as you think

DLB Magazine, issue 71: April 2008
By Mark Johnston, Director Client Services, Touchpoint

DeQuervain's tenosynovitis is an inflammation of the two tendons controlling the thumb's movement. It is caused primarily by overuse. Until recently, finger puppeteers were the only occupational group likely to lodge an injury claim for the condition. Now, of course, suffering hoards have emerged from the woodwork. You can blame technology, mostly texting. Although we haven’t yet been spooked by government reports calculating the financial burden of the disease on taxpayers, there could be something to worry about when you consider that chiropractors in Australia were moved to sponsor a "National Day of Safe Text" during which participants wore bandages on their typing thumbs and practiced "text-ercises" to avert injuries.

Not reared on text, instant messaging or email, I can’t help but dismiss anyone complaining about overworked thumbs. Corked thighs and cauliflower ears, sure, I’ll listen. Otherwise, harden up. But in sharing this sentiment with my younger and more politically correct professional peers, apparently I need to change my tune, or risk further alienating the new generation of savvy consumers.

A recent poll conducted by UK electronics retailer Plantronics showed 63 per cent of managers agreed that new graduates communicated less vocally than their colleagues, preferring instant messaging or a webcam over talking directly to colleagues. This predilection for electronic exchange over, shall we say, analogue communication, is supported by a growing body of research, filling parents with despair and challenging marketers to engage younger audiences.

However withdrawn and complicated these young ones might appear, noses buried in keyboards; thumbs mashing out texts, they apparently shouldn’t be viewed suspiciously. I’m told young people don’t see digital communication any differently to ‘normal’ communing. Which, I figure, is hardly surprising given that they’ve grown up with this stuff, when we’ve had to adapt to it.

MTV and Nickelodeon New Zealand have spent some time making sense of digital habits. Stats from a recent MTV Networks research study, (called the Circuits of Cool/Digital Playground, the largest-ever global technology and lifestyle study into how kids and young people interact with digital technology), showed that when youth (14-24yrs) were asked what they did first thing in the morning and last thing at night, two in five (46% NZ youth, 42% globally) said they checked their mobile phones. Of course they do. No time for idle household chit chat. Email, instant messaging and social networking are just as pervasive.

With so much screen time devoted to places other than television, it would be reasonable to expect that these mediums have absconded with a significant chunk of television’s game time. However, it’s not all bad for television. The MTV Networks study indicates that youth have evolved into excellent multi-taskers, simultaneously using any number of mediums to filter a hotchpotch of stimuli. TV has been incorporated into the general hum of their digital conversations. Watching TV, talking to a friend on the phone and surfing the web, all at the same time, requires no special skill, and is quite normal, apparently.

The penchant for dipping in and out of conversations and ‘places’ has fed an appetite for more control over what’s served up when. Youngsters want content on all platforms - mobile, computer and TV. They want it to be searchable and increasingly expect it to be supplied on demand. With the prevailing mood for control, good old TV is one of the few mediums managing to hold its own. Instead of being relegated to yet another background medium, TV is most often the ‘last man standing’ when everything else has gone quiet. Advertisers are more likely to capture attentive eyeballs through television than any other medium. What’s more, even with the mass of information at their fingertips, kids still love good advertising. They like being entertained. Once again TV delivers, with the ‘best ad they’ve seen recently’ still overwhelmingly on TV. As a result, TV is the best place to introduce new things, which, communicated well, are amplified in other channels. Consider that just over one in two (53%) local kids (8-14yrs) instant message each other about "what is on TV right now".

Influencing youth is not as simple as it once was, evolving from a small, defined elite to a complex interactive web of communication and channels. Peers influence each other as much as media. In the battle for attention and audience share, content providers like MTV Networks are splicing digital channels with their television shows. They recognise that they need to be where their audiences are and offer them more control over how they engage. Here in New Zealand MTV and Nickelodeon have promoted interactive, text-based campaigns to support their shows and engage youth audiences. One campaign alone attracted between 3,000-to-4,000 entries over a two-day period. Click here to read the full case study.

MTV and Nickelodeon’s text competition is just one example of the marriage between television and digital communications. Increasingly, they say, interactivity will be the difference between being lost in the clutter and standing out like SpongeBob SquarePants.

Ends

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