A new report from Pew Research Center takes a look at technology use among America’s youth. The survey found that 78 percent of people between the age of 12 and 17 said they owned a cell phone and nearly half said they owned a smartphone. That translates into 37 percent of all teens owning a smartphone, up from 23 percent in 2011.
Of the 802 youth polled for the survey, 23 percent said they owned a tablet – figures that are in line with adult adoption rates. A whopping 95 percent of teens said the use the Internet with 93 percent saying they have access to the web at home. 71 percent of those with home access share a laptop or desktop with other family members.
Mary Madden, Senior Researcher for the Pew Research Center’s Internet Project and co-author of the report, said the nature of teens’ Internet use has transformed dramatically from stationary connections at a shared desktop to always-on connections that travel with them throughout the day. She further noted that in many ways, teens represent the leading edge of mobile connectivity as their usage patterns often signal future changes in the adult population.
Pew gathered information for this report from a national phone survey of 802 parents and their teens conducted between July 26 and September 30, 2012. Interviews were conducted in both English and Spanish across landlines and cell phones. Pew said the margin of error for the full sample is plus / minus 4.5 percent.
