Youth and the Internet

When Maria(@websuccessdiva)  showed me the Ruder Finn Intent Index I was very excited. I love it when stats show me what I already know. While it is great to know what people are doing on-line, it is important we take this one step further, particularly when it comes to the youth stats. And not only just for people who market to youth; where youth lead, the rest will follow. What is going on with youth on-line paves the way for what us oldies will soon be doing on-line too. When it comes to the on-line world, the only things to really watch (in my mind) are the youth stats as they show us the way forward.

So what do they say about youth?

A majority of youth, 55%, go online just to play games, in fact more than one third (37%) seek out social networking sites to play against others.

This is huge; 55% want to play a social game (watch out; social gaming is the way forward). If you want to drive youth to your site, having a game will really help. Weetabix is a great example, with their findnigel.com which, although it drove traffic to their site, in my mind failed to really engage or form a community. Once you found Nigel there was really nothing else for you to do. If you create a social game you had better make sure it has longevity and can be carried forward in a social and interactive way.And for those clever enough, social gaming is making its way into the more adult domains such as twitter with games such as Play Trivia and Twit Brain, and then there is Spymaster which was developed with the adults in mind.

Now, I am not a great gamer, mainly because I know I would get addicted and do no work, but for those of you that want to keep ahead, social gaming has to be on your radar.

Youth go online to vent! 50% of all youth go online specifically to rage against a specific person or organization.

And don’t we just love them for it? Yes, Gen Y are very vocal and this has two implications. For business this can have a massive impact and those ahead of the game create a place for youth to vent about your business and your product. I tell you, you will get great honest feedback that will move your business forward. Too scared to do that? Well, don’t flatter yourself, they will be venting about you somewhere else. Youth want transparency and honesty, so you had better have both. And if the rest of the world will follow then us oldies will get savvy too. Gone soon will be the faceless “posh” distant web presence that is squeaky clean and tells the world how wonderful it is. You had better be ready.

Youth (69%) are two times more likely to express themselves online by posting comments on social networking sites than the average internet user (37%).

This is really simple; they want to participate with you, so help them give youth multiple ways to get to you. And for the rest of us, know that this is the way the web is going so look at your on-line presence and ask how you can make it interactive. If you think that your customers don’t want to communicate that much with you, then think again. Ignore this at your peril; they may not now but soon they will.

More interesting though was some other research I found, which asked youth not what they do on-line but how it makes them feel. The Web Makes You Feel is an insightful project exploring how young people feel about the web and also the reasons behind the emotions.

Some of the key findings:
• Top 10 Emotions: Happy, Connected, Good, Excited, Free, Entertained, Bored, Interested, Socialble and Independent.
• Gender: Compared to males, the web makes females feel just as positive, negative and neutral as men.
• Age: The web makes youth feel more positive about the web at 13 years old than they do at 19 years old.
• Positive/Negative: Overall, the web makes youth feel more positive than negative, with over 56% of feelings expressed classified as positive.

It’s not about technology, it’s about relationships.

I think this is a really interesting question not what technology do I wnat to use but how do I want my users to feel?

*This post was originally written in Sept 08 but never released on this blog

Insights from youth

Julia Shalet recently conducted a teen advisory panel for some new product designs (a bit like Dragon’s Den, but turned on its head) . I love the insights from this panel and have put them below for you with my two pennies worth.

Marketers to youth, sit up and take notice!

Julia Shalet helps businesses in the youth sector to build their offering, as well as working with schools to develop compelling learning experiences, grounded in real businesses. Over fifteen years in the industry, she has worked with clients including T-Mobile, Weeworld.com, Hertfordshire Careers Services, many internet & mobile startups and schools across London & Herts.

Youth Insights

1. Useful won over Entertaining
Whenever I review digital products I advise that the offering should be highly useful, highly entertaining, or preferably both – a useful product must still offer an entertaining user interface. The highest ranked products in this session were the Next Buses / Traveline service and Wikitude.
- Sophie thought that everyone she knew would use the Wikitude service as it was so useful
- Nick said the Next Buses service was “a good idea and practical”

Millennials want your product to be relevant for purpose; they are not easily fooled. So yes, entertaining them is great but really they want to know how they can use it. Is it practical and relevant for them?

2. The importance of the user experience
Our current teen generation have grown up with technological innovations and as such, they have experienced some poor experiences with early lifecycle products. If the user experience is too clunky, slow or laborious, they will quickly give up trying and move on. For each of the products, questions were raised about how they would start using the offering and how much they cost. Katrina commented in her documentation of the session that “although apt at figuring out gadgets for themselves, quick, visual instructions that clearly illustrate concepts and functionality are key to capturing teens’ attention.”
- Peter asked about Locomatrix “Why would I pay for an application for a game I can just make up/imagine for myself?”
- Peter was also concerned that some of the applications would only work on certain phones.
- Rachel commented that she would be unlikely to take her phone out while she was waiting at the bus stop as she didn’t want to be mugged.

Yes, you got it. Value for them means free – why would they pay when they can get it elsewhere or do it themselves? Think quick, free and a great user experience. You will have to find other ways generally to make money from the offering.

3. The teens were good at building on the ideas that were presented
I am a firm believer in facilitating end users to help companies build out their offering and keeping users engaged throughout the whole development process. This panel had good ideas for each of the products presented to them and I would recommend further innovation & design workshops with the teens to flesh out the ideas further.
- Aidan suggested that Traveline/Next bus “would be more useful if you could link it to live updates across all other forms of public transport; most of my friends use Tube, trains and buses and often a combination of 2 or more for a single journey”
- Nick suggested that the Traveline/Next bus should “add a countdown system” and also that Wikitude should add “user feedback and comments” to make the content more engaging and social

Millennials want to be involved in the designing of something. They want to feel influential and they want to be able to customise what they have. So you had better factor that in.

4. Some apprehension towards the overlay of the virtual in to the real world
- On the winning application – Wikitude, Nick commented that “The beauty of travel to new places is the fun of exploring and discovering new places. Doesn’t this app take away the authenticity of that experience?”
- This challenge was echoed by Aidan with regard to the Locomatrix offering: “Why would we go outdoors to play a lo-tech mobile game when we have amazing visually and intellectually challenging computer games?”
- Nick was also concerned about taking virtual gaming outside (Locomatrix) “doesn’t that contradict the whole idea of bringing reality out from behind the screen?”

Millennials really despite what we think they want to experience, things outside their computer screen, and to truly mobilise them you need to mobilise them on and off line.

5. Be Cool!

Peter was concerned over the Locomatrix offering – “it wouldn’t look cool to be gaming outdoors”. He suggested that it could work better with a younger age group. Rachel thought some of the video presentations for the products were “very cool”, however it did not distract her from questioning the presenters on the content and usability. Once again, I can’t stress enough how important it is to engage your potential users and ask them what they think is cool. We oldies often get it wrong!

What is cool to millennials is something that has social currency, something they can share with others or tell others about. It does not necessarily mean bells and whistles….

6. Reality hit for offerings where users can build their own games
There are some great examples from the virtual gaming space of users creating content – a great recent example I have seen is Roblox. Aside from the necessity to make the user interface really intuitive, it must be remembered that the majority of users will consume the offering that is presented to them while a smaller group engage in the creation of content. When I reference “building content”, I mean to the degree that Locomatrix enables users to build their own games rather than the lower level of self-expression when for example users choose items from virtual stores for their avatars. This was reflected in this teen panel, where one of the teens seemed to like the idea of creating his own games and the others were rather confused.
Katrina, who was documenting this session, puts this well as she considers Screen wars: Consoles v Mobile Apps: “Modern day teens into gaming have been brought up on Sony PS, X-box and Nintendo and have become accustomed to:
- HD graphics and cutting-edge technology as standard computer game issue.
- “Intelligent” games/challenges with increasing levels of difficulty.
- Having their pick from a wide range and variety of games designed FOR them.
While mobile gaming apps can’t (yet) match the high-tech specs of console games, they need to offer something else to attract and sustain the attention of a demanding teen gaming community. Moreover, how much does this target market actually want to be involved in co-creating a game when off-the-shelf professional games are quick and easy to access, relatively affordable and easy to use?”

Just because millennials use technology does not mean they all understand themselves. This generation is often defined by technology but really it is creativity and the power to influence that defines them. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that technology is the be all and end all to them

7. Don’t pull the wool over their eyes!
Most of the teen panel struggled with the idea of Qootia. From previous insight sessions that I have run, today’s teens are really savvy and they are prepared to openly engage with brands if they feel the benefit of doing so and/or if they think the brand/product is “cool”. Tomaz from Qootia was pushed by the panel who were trying to understand the offering and he did suggest that it could be “useful for finding ‘lost’ friends at music festivals or for killing time while waiting at the bus stop”. They got that, but they still couldn’t quite understand what the user experience would be. It would have come to life for them if a clear scenario had been presented, for example, a multi-player big screen game brought to you by a particular brand advertiser where users could work their character in the game using their mobile. Suggest that someone sponsors me to run a further session in to mobile and digital advertising as it would be fascinating to get teens views in this area – I have good insight from the virtual world environment.

Millennials don’t like flannel, they want it straight ….what can this do for me?

Sick of your child sitting in front of the computer all day?

Let’s face it, there is always plenty to do during the summer holidays. That isn’t the challenge. It is finding something our kids, especially teens, would rather do than sitting in front of the computer. When every suggestion is met with, “Boring!” what can a parent do? With two teens and a nine year old at home I know exactly where you are coming from and how difficult this can be. Is there a solution? Definitely!

Let’s take a quick look at our children’s generation, Generation Y or The Milleniums, to see who and what we are dealing with.

Research has shown that Gen Y are:
• Technologically brilliant
• More globally orientated
• Ethnically diverse
• Better educated
• Socially tolerant
• Environmentally conscious
• Volunteer in record numbers

All positive attributes but you may still be thinking, “All well and good but how on earth do I get them off the computer and out doing something?” Firstly, we need to make our young people part of the solution. Secondly, we need to engage them from their point of view rather than trying to get them to see or do things from ours.

Our techno savvy children approach many areas of their lives via the net. If they need to get information for a school project, they check it out on the net. If they want to contact friends, they do it over the net. To us at their age, socializing meant face to face contact or talking over the phone. Gen Y may still do this but they are also constantly communicating with friends over the net through social networking groups or msm. If we want to engage our young people we must accept that computers are an integral part of their lives and use them in creative ways to connect with our young.

With a little encouragement we can get our young adults out and about, even with the rest of the family. The best way to start is to have a casual conversation, possibly over dinner, about up coming plans. “What has everyone got planned for the summer holidays? What would you like to do?” Younger siblings will usually start talking first while your teens may just roll their eyes or say nothing. If your teen doesn’t respond ask, “Is there a sport or art you’d like to try?” Still no positive response, ask everyone, “What could we do on rainy/sunny days?” or “How about….?” Keep brainstorming different ideas without censoring. When ideas start to slow down suggest topics or themes such as historical sites, volunteering, music etc. Some of the ideas will be suitable for the whole family but others will be individual pursuits. The idea is to open up the conversation and plant “idea” seeds in their minds.

“Where else can we find out what’s happening during the summer?” will help children focus on other resources such as magazines, newspapers and the net, sports centres, and helps encourage independent thinking which is so vital in school. In these tougher economic times, asking for “cheap day out” activities can help children understand the value of money and they often come up with some wonderfully creative ideas. How about an all day pajama party for the family with movies and popcorn? Or get your children to cook dinner? Give them a budget; let them create the menu, do the shopping, cooking and table preparation. It could become an enjoyable family tradition. Setting a budget and challenging a teen to plan a family day can also be very effective and fun.

It is always a good idea to plan some down time so everyone can just kick back and relax. Unscheduled time is so important especially for children who are normally over scheduled. It gives them an opportunity to experience boredom and learn how to entertain themselves. For your teens that downtime might mean spending time on the computer catching up with friends. And that’s ok. It’s all about balance.

In our house we have planned our summer visit back to the UK as a family. One evening we sat around the dining table with laptops on researching hotels, local attractions as well as planning our route. It was great to see each child involved and making, and of course rejecting, ideas. Will everything go as planned? No. Will everyone be happy with each choice made? No. However, as each of the children was involved in the whole process they are more likely to give and take, and participate even in activities they don’t particularly like.

Getting our children off the computer may mean getting them on it more in the beginning. Making the computer your friend rather than the enemy and getting your techno savvy Gen Y to help to do research on the net will give you a greater chance of getting them outside enjoying all that summer has to offer.

Carol McNaughton Ho is the creator of Fusion Parenting. Through coaching and consulting she helps parents prepare their children to face the ever shrinking world as responsible, independent young adults who are motivated, have a voice and a strong cultural identity. Carol can be contacted at 96633844 or carolmcnaughtonho@yahoo.com.

Read more about Carol

Some very interesting stuff coming out in the news this week.

Schools should teach Twitter

Schools need to wake up to social networking

still not sure schools need to embrace social networking?

Report: kids’ use of tech growing exponentially

And just because they have to have a say

Tories propose school test reform

Do you understand social media?

People often ask me why I am such a tech geek and the answer is simple. To understand this generation you need to understand the technology it is such a big part of their lives without understanding it well really you are  missing the point in my mind.

And if you think it is going away think again……

Report: kids’ use of tech growing exponentially

Watch this video from Andrew Davis an amazing person I have just found…very funny too.

So what do you need to do to understand this generation more?

TV and Social rooms

Youth asked for TV to be more social and it looks like the wave is coming. As we know, the figures are outstanding and more and more teens are watching TV on line.

With CBS launching social rooms for their programmes, I think we are seeing TV 2.0 begin to take off.

Now due to the fact that I am in the UK, I cannot see the actual programme in the room, but I can get the jist.

Each programme has a mini-site with a forum, a fan base, a place to vote and watch and a place to meet the cats etc. I think this shows us how different Gen-Y are; not only do they want to watch TV, they want to be involved, they want to have a say and more importantly, they believe they can, by their involvement, have an impact. If these stations are savvy enough they will monitor the board and usage of these rooms and use the information they find to help them shape the future of particular shows.

Well done for the innovation CBS, we love it!

And with Yahoo launching connected TV, it looks like we will also be able to turn our TVs into computers very easily, staying up to date of all we need to while watching our favourite shows.