Teens media habits uncovered by a.....Teen

July 15, 11:34 AMSilicon Valley Working Moms ExaminerMelonie Goede-Gonzalez

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Recently, I read an article about a 15 year old who declared himself the media expert for all tweens and teens alike who had the good fortune to be interning at Morgan Stanly (who interns there at 15, BTW?) He apparently rocked the media world with his honest and heart wrenching (at least to the execs) insights.  After reading the summary of his insights it got me thinking, what do teens really do with their media behavior and where do they spend their hard earned(or not) dough?

Matthew Robson, an intern from a London school, who wrote this report on teenagers' likes and dislikes, made the Financial Times' front page.  He had an interesting take on the subject.  According to him, teens don’t use Twitter because entering a twit counts as a text and they won’t waste them on a social site that has no “real” audience.  OUCH. 

Teens, according to Robson, don’t buy music and choose to stream it for free or share it.  Bit torrent has never had this much of an endorsement, yet it’s not the hot commodity Twitter has become (Hello buzz word).  Are you surprised by all his revelations? Apparently these execs were floored.  It seems difficult to believe that when he said they hate display advertising in general in any form online or otherwise, we were surprised by it.

Kids don’t like ads and don’t want to spend money.  Hmmm seems like common sense.  Kids these days aren’t dumb. They won’t spend their cash if they can get it for free.  I don’t spend my cash if I can get it for free.  Advertising needs to simply learn to outsmart these kids, everyone for that matter.  Don’t we have the brain power to do it?

I am certain the exec roster’s pedigrees at most media companies would be beyond imagination- certainly beyond the average checkbook and savings account.  Perhaps therein lays the problem.  Marketers and execs alike are too far removed from main stream life.  What marketing guru who has always had a trust fund and has never had to be resourceful is going to fathom how the teens and tweens today behave?   Unless they are parents themselves, it seems futile at best to even try to assume they know what teens think.

Truth be told, the kids these days are spenders; but where and how they spend has become a mystery to the business world and  to the business people.  I have a suggestion.  Perhaps these people, the ones that are parents at least, can take a break from work, knock on their own children’s doors and simply ask them what they are doing.  I bet they might tell you their big secrets or “media behaviors” if  they were asked.  It seems the best research method is usually social networking done the old fashioned way, in person.  Let’s give it try and conquer the world.