LONDON/GLASGOW: Young millennials are not as dependent on social media or their mobile devices as conventional thinking assumes, new research has suggested.
Of the 2,000 UK and US consumers aged 17 to 31 who were surveyed by Redshift Research in partnership with Bite, the Glasgow-based marketing services agency, a full 43% said they didn't use Twitter at all while only a minority (41%) said they used Facebook for more than three hours a week.
The average millennial spends 108 hours a year browsing the internet for work or study and 77 hours a year reading news online, the Drum reported, more than twice the 36 hours they spend looking up celebrity gossip.
They are also more likely to share a link related to their work or study (30%) than they are to share a link related to a story about a celebrity (18%).
Furthermore, 65% of millennials spend more time accessing the internet via a laptop or desktop PC than via a tablet or smartphone and, perhaps surprisingly, reading books emerged as a more popular activity than might have been assumed.
Almost two-thirds of female millennials (61%) said they were far more likely to read a book during their spare time than play an online game and, while 51% of male millennials listed games as a hobby, 37% still preferred to read books.
"There have been so many studies of this generation and many have painted a far too simplistic picture of how 17-31 year-olds actually behave," said Claire Davidson, insight and strategy director at Bite.
"A failure to understand their real behaviour means brands will fail to provide them with content and services that fit with and enhance their lives," she cautioned. "It is time we are realistic about this generation and what they do online."
Of the 2,000 UK and US consumers aged 17 to 31 who were surveyed by Redshift Research in partnership with Bite, the Glasgow-based marketing services agency, a full 43% said they didn't use Twitter at all while only a minority (41%) said they used Facebook for more than three hours a week.
The average millennial spends 108 hours a year browsing the internet for work or study and 77 hours a year reading news online, the Drum reported, more than twice the 36 hours they spend looking up celebrity gossip.
They are also more likely to share a link related to their work or study (30%) than they are to share a link related to a story about a celebrity (18%).
Furthermore, 65% of millennials spend more time accessing the internet via a laptop or desktop PC than via a tablet or smartphone and, perhaps surprisingly, reading books emerged as a more popular activity than might have been assumed.
Almost two-thirds of female millennials (61%) said they were far more likely to read a book during their spare time than play an online game and, while 51% of male millennials listed games as a hobby, 37% still preferred to read books.
"There have been so many studies of this generation and many have painted a far too simplistic picture of how 17-31 year-olds actually behave," said Claire Davidson, insight and strategy director at Bite.
"A failure to understand their real behaviour means brands will fail to provide them with content and services that fit with and enhance their lives," she cautioned. "It is time we are realistic about this generation and what they do online."
Data sourced from the Drum; additional content by Warc staff
