Category: Youth Culture

Every time a new report is released, the numbers have grown even bigger. The smartphone craze is still full throttle. Even 42% of American mobile subscribers over 55-years-old now own smartphones.

That’s a whole lot of mobile Facebooking!

A couple months ago I provided you with an update about the digital devices we own, how many of us own them, and the rapid rate in which this number is increasing. Well… those numbers are still growing. Here’s a glimpse, according to the most recent June updates from Nielsen:

• 61% of moble subscribers in the U.S. owned a smartphone during the most recent three month period (March-May 2013)
• 53% of smartphone owners used Android
• 40% use iPhones (but Apple’s smartphone market grew 7% and Android only grew 2%)
• Woman make up the majority of smartphone owners
• 78% of Millennial subscribers aged 25-34 own them
• 75% of Millennial subscribers aged 18-24 own them

So what are they doing on these phones? Nielsen’s June 10^th report about mobile consumers reveals… Continue reading “Smartphone Ownership Still Rising”

“Let’s stay up all night Friday night!”

“Why not. YOLO!”

It’s a term young people have latched onto in the last year, expressing exactly what the acronym says, “You only live once.” But as popular as YOLO is (I’ve written about YOLO before), this attitude might not be quite as prominent as FOMO, the “Fear Of Missing Out.” Because, in today’s world of hyper-connection… no one wants to be the last one to know.

College Humor captured this phenomenon well in this hilarious YouTube video I’ll be showing to student leaders in my workshops about technology at the SLC2013 conventions.

We’ll probably be seeing more of these. A few other funny FOMO videos have surfaced already.

This phenomena goes beyond the desire for social interaction. Young people just want Continue reading “From YOLO to FOMO”