Spend time with a group of teenagers and at some point, you’ll likely see their attention focused away from each other and instead on their iPhone’s, Galaxy’s and Windows Phone.
The trend is pretty clear: more and more youngsters own smartphones and are using them to surf the internet.
A new study from Pew Research Center confirms this, finding that of the 78 percent of American teens who owned a cell phone in 2012, nearly half that group (47 percent) used a smartphone. That means out of all the teenagers in this country, 37 percent have a smartphone. That’s up from 23 percent just one year prior.
And that also means more and more teens are using their devices to access the internet. Pew found that 25 percent of teens are “cell-mostly” internet users, meaning they surf the web more often with their phone instead of a desktop or laptop. To compare, only 15 percent of adults are “cell-mostly.”
Pew’s survey looked at technology use in 802 teens from the ages 12 to 17 in July and September of 2012.
Previously on GeekWire: More than just books: Pew study details how technology has changed libraries
