Saturday, November 29, 2008

Marketing to today's youth


Today's youth brings about a whole new world of marketing. They have grown up always using a remote control to their televisions, they have listened to their music with cds and most use a computer for more than just homework. According to our week 7 lesson, 96 percent of children between the ages of 8 and 18 have been online at least once and spend an average of more than one hours each day using a computer on top of their schoolwork, with 48 minutes of that bein online. Amazingly, 54 percent of all young people use computers for recreation, compared to 85 percent who listen to music and 81 percent who watch television (Ramos, 2008).


With these statistics, I am looking forward to this week's lesson as I have two stepchildren, 14 and 17. From my observations, the 14 year old girl is much more active with computers with a MySpace page, iTunes for her iPod, not to mention her texting on her cell phone. These are all characteristics of a typical girl her age. In fact, last night, I took her to pick up a friend for a sleepover and the entire trip, neither one of them spoke as they were texting in the car, while listening to their iPods.


A report by the MacArthur Foundation reports that youth find the digital world creates new opportunities for them to explore interests, develop technical skills, and experiment with new forms of self-expression, which have captured their teens' attention because they provide avenues for extending social avenues, self-directed learning and independence (Ito, M., et al, 2008).


So as we start this week's lessons, I will be sure to relate my stepchildren's habits to the lesson and look forward to reporting what I learn.
Reference:
IMC 619 Week 7 (2008). The Young and the REST, but not LESS: Targeting Youth and Multicultural Audicencs wtih Emerging Media. West Virginia University.
Digital Youth Research (2008). Final Report on Our Findings. Retrieved on November 29, 2008, from http://digitalyouth.ischool.berkeley.edu/.

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