We live in obvious times

15-year-old Matthew Robson made the FT‘s front page today with a refreshingly frank research note on the media habits of teenagers. The report written for Morgan Stanley offers insights on advertizing, technology preferences and media consumption using the remarkably young intern’s own experiences with digital media and that of his friends’. Robson’s work has reportedly ...

583671_090713_FT_Derek_Berwin_Getty_images25.jpg
583671_090713_FT_Derek_Berwin_Getty_images25.jpg

15-year-old Matthew Robson made the FT's front page today with a refreshingly frank research note on the media habits of teenagers. The report written for Morgan Stanley offers insights on advertizing, technology preferences and media consumption using the remarkably young intern's own experiences with digital media and that of his friends'. Robson's work has reportedly generated a great deal of interest among media moguls and investors in London's City, and Edward Hill-Wood, head of the team that published the report, called it "thought-provoking." Highlights include:

15-year-old Matthew Robson made the FT‘s front page today with a refreshingly frank research note on the media habits of teenagers. The report written for Morgan Stanley offers insights on advertizing, technology preferences and media consumption using the remarkably young intern’s own experiences with digital media and that of his friends’. Robson’s work has reportedly generated a great deal of interest among media moguls and investors in London’s City, and Edward Hill-Wood, head of the team that published the report, called it “thought-provoking.” Highlights include:

Teenagers are consuming more media, but in entirely different ways and are almost certainly not prepared to pay for it. They resent intrusive advertizing on billboards, TV and the Internet. They are happy to chase content and music across platforms and devices (iPods, mobiles, streaming sites). Print media (newspapers, directories) are viewed as irrelevant.

Texting is still key and use of new data services limited due to cost.

Teenagers listen to a lot of music, mostly whist doing something else (like travelling or using a computer). They are VERY reluctant to pay for it (most never having bought a CD) and a large majority (8/10) downloading it illegally from file sharing sites.

Conclusions? Teenagers don’t have any money and they like free things. Also, eight out of ten of Robson’s friends are downloading music illegally.

Derek Berwin/Getty images

Aditi Nangia is an editorial researcher at Foreign Policy.

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