December 2006

This report explores trends in the relatively newly researched phenomenon of media multitasking among American youth. The premise of the study described here is that the way young people use media is changing dramatically. New technologies, such as the computer and handheld devices (e.g., personal data assistants, or PDAs), appear to foster the behaviour pattern of constantly switching between such activities as instant messaging (IM), emailing, playing a video game, ordering a book online, or watching the news on television. The phenomenon of engaging in more than one media activity at a time "is a common occurrence"; in 2005, a Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) report showed an increase in media multitasking: 26% of media time is spent on multiple media, up from 16% of media time in 1999.

The report summarised here is based on data from 7-day media use diaries collected from 694 young people in the United States aged 8 to 18 years, and quantifies the actual amount of time young people spend multitasking when using media or doing homework. These findings were explored at a KFF-sponsored forum including executives from MTV and eMarketer, along with a cognitive neuroscientist and experts on media use among young people. Participants discussed how pervasive media multitasking is, potential cognitive and social development implications, and which teens are most likely to media multitask. The session also explored how organisations interested in conducting social marketing campaigns could adjust their strategies for reaching young people in the changing media environment. Click here to access a variety of materials from the forum.

Some key findings from the report:

• When they are a young person's primary activity, TV and videogames are the least multitasked media, while reading and computer activities such as IM, computer games and looking at websites are the most multitasked. Specifically, nearly two-thirds of the time young people spend reading, playing computer games or looking at websites, they are also doing something else at the same time (63% when playing computer games or looking at websites, 64% when IMing). But the same is true less than half the time they are watching TV (45%) or playing videogames (45%). Young people are more likely to focus their attention exclusively on TV than on reading: 55% of the time that they are watching TV as their primary activity they are doing nothing else, compared to only 38% of the time they are reading as their primary activity.
• In a typical week, 81% of young people spend some of their media time "media
  multitasking", but 19% of young people don't media multitask at all over the course of a typical week. Young people who are exposed to the most media, those who have a computer and can see a television from it, those who are sensation seekers, those who live in highly TV-oriented households, and girls (more than boys) are all more likely to media multitask.

The author concludes by noting that, if a media multitasking environment becomes the norm for young people, advertisers and pro-social marketers have a number of questions to ask, such as: "If young people's media attention is divided, how can they be reached? Will messages placed in different media eventually be absorbed? Will a media synergy approach be enough to overcome divided attention? Can ultra-multitaskers ever be reached?"