Introduction

THIS REPORT PRESENTS THE results of a nationally representative survey of more than 1,600 U.S. 8- to 18-year-olds, about their use of and relationship with media. The survey covers their enjoyment of various types of media activities, how frequently they engage in those activities, and how much time they spend doing so. The data are presented for two age groups: tweens (8- to 12-year-olds) and teens (13- to 18-year-olds). The survey addresses all types of media: from reading books in print and listening to the radio to using social media, watching online videos, and playing mobile games. And it covers young people’s interactions with media technologies ranging from television sets and video game consoles to virtual reality headsets and smart speakers.

The report also tracks changes in tweens’ and teens’ media behaviors between 2015 and 2019, comparing the current results to those found in the first wave of the survey, conducted four years ago. Each survey used a separate sample of respondents, with the text and format of the current questionnaire staying as close as possible to the previous one (allowing for some modest changes to reflect the changing media environment). As far as we know, this is the only nationally representative survey tracking media use patterns among a truly random sample of U.S. 8- to 18-year-olds.

Among the topics covered are:

The degree to which tweens and teens enjoy using different types of media, from watching TV to listening to music and playing video games.
How often they do each of these media activities: daily, weekly, monthly, or less.
In any given day, how much time they spend engaging in various media activities, with screen or non-screen media.
To what extent young people or their parents monitor the amount of time spent using screen media.
How media usage varies by age, gender, race/ethnicity, household income, or parent education.
Which media technologies young people own or have access to at home, and how that varies based on age or socioeconomic status.
To what degree young people use media technology to help with their homework, and which devices they use.
The extent to which young people multitask with entertainment media while doing homework, and what impact they think that has on the quality of their work.

The purpose of this survey is to present a big-picture look at the large trends and patterns of media usage among young people in the U.S. Obviously there is tremendous diversity in how individual children engage with technology or other media; some are inveterate readers and others online gamers. Some spend their time coding or making digital music, while others are devoted to their social media accounts or to watching the latest YouTube videos.

What this study provides is the context in which to situate those disparate media-use patterns. It helps us understand whether the girl who uses her online time to “geek out” or the boy who spends 10 hours of his day playing video games are the norms or the exceptions. Just as the Dow Jones Industrial Average offers a big-picture look at how the stock market is doing on average, this tracking survey offers a big-picture look at how young people, on average, are engaging with media. It tells us whether social media use is up or down, whether video games are more or less popular, and whether disparities in home computer access still exist.

The goal is to provide reliable national data to help content creators, educators, policymakers, health providers, parents, and researchers understand the role of media in young people’s lives, as they work to promote the health and well-being of tweens and teens.

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Executive Summary >