All the cool kids prefer smartphones over computers

Teens and Technology 2013, a new study released on Wednesday by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, noted the shifting relationship between the today’s youth and the Internet. Drawing on phone interviews with 802 parents and their children aged 12 through 17 years between July and September last year, the report cited that an obvious 95 percent of teens use the Internet, with 93 percent able to gain computer access at home (71 percent say that the home computer is one shared with other family members). Still, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the computer is what they’re using to get online.

A good 23 percent of teens taking part in the survey own a tablet device, a percentage reportedly comparable with the adult population of the United States. However, numbers skewed when the question of smartphone usage was introduced; The study found that 78 percent of teens have a cellphone, with almost half of that group (47 percent) upgrading to their own smartphone. If our math is correct, that amounts to 37 percent of all teens with smartphones – a significant jump from the 2011 number of 23 percent.

Odder still – and, perhaps, something that may be more of a sign of next generation net use – is the report’s notice that one in four teens are described as “cell mostly” users, a term that translates as users who “mostly” access the Internet using their phone as opposed to any other device. That number is far above the adult average, which runs at 15 percent.