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The study, sponsored by the MacArthur Foundation, was part of a $50m (£31m) project on digital media and learning.Over the period of the study, researchers observed users for more than 5,000 hours.
Teens explored creative passions like gaming, video editing and writing
The aim of the Digital Youth Project was to provide an "ethnographical view of how children use social media to socialise, learn and relax".
Dr Ito said that connecting online with friends via social networks such as MySpace and Facebook was where teens now "hang out", compared to the usual public places like shopping malls, the street and parks.
Results are forthcoming in Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out: Kids Living and Learning with New Media (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2009).
Related links
Read the press release.
Read a two-page overview of the study (PDF).
Read the full study on the Digital Youth Project’s website.
"It might surprise parents to learn that it is not a waste of time for their teens to hang out online," says Mizuko Ito, University of California, Irvine researcher and the lead author of the most extensive U.S. study to date on teens and their use of digital media.
Read the press release.
Read a two-page overview of the study (PDF).
Read the full study on the Digital Youth Project’s website.
"It might surprise parents to learn that it is not a waste of time for their teens to hang out online," says Mizuko Ito, University of California, Irvine researcher and the lead author of the most extensive U.S. study to date on teens and their use of digital media.
