Pew Internet & American Life Project: Teens Online

March 23rd, 2005 Stewart Posted in Uncategorized |

One interesting bit in the latest Pew Internet report that really shouldn’t be overlooked:

Some 13% of youth between the ages of 12 and 17 – about 3 million teens – do not use the internet. Nearly half (47%) of these non-users say they used the internet at one point or another, but then dropped off. About one in ten of all non-online teens report being offline because they had bad experiences, they face parental restrictions, or because they do not feel safe.

Amid all the discussions of parents protecting teens by placing computers in public areas of the house (73%), monitoring online activities (62%), and using Internet filtering software (54%), this is a staggering number of non-users, especially in light of how many of them previously used the net and then “dropped out.”

One of the questions I’ve been routinely asking participants of my Teaching the Millennials talk is how will this protected/coddled generation of Mils respond when they meet genuine adversity or hardship in their daily activities. For example, as we continue to ship jobs overseas at alarming rates, unemployment is on the rise, and Boomers are retiring from their jobs later in life than before, how will job-hungry Mils respond? Eighty percent of them expect to make $50,000/yr or more by the time they turn thirty; the average thirty year old in the US makes roughly $26,000. How will the realities of the job market affect them?

If the 1.5 million Internet drop-offs are any example, they might have difficulties.