Are Young People Really Smartphone-Dependent? Are TV Lovers Still Alive and Well? Diversifying Information Behaviors

◆I want to know how young people
◆I want to know how young people use TV, computers, and smartphones

"I don't really understand what today's youth are doing on their smartphones."
"Do young people just play games all the time instead of watching TV?"
Lately, these kinds of things have been causing quite a stir and making the news.

In recent years, new information and communication services like social media, video sharing platforms, social games, and curated media have been emerging one after another.
At the same time, new devices equipped with screens of various sizes—smartphones, tablets, and more—have become widespread. People use these new services to access video and text information and interact with friends.

As a result, diverse services targeting various screen media—beyond traditional TVs and PCs—have proliferated, dramatically diversifying people's information-seeking behaviors.

Young people are undoubtedly the most affected by the proliferation of these media.
"How are young people differentiating their use of screen media?"
has recently drawn attention from a business perspective as well.

However, analyzing how young people specifically differentiate their use of diverse screen media requires detailed data from large-scale samples, making it difficult to find answers.

◆Unraveling Young People's Information Behavior with Detailed Data

Therefore, DENTSU SOKEN INC. Media Innovation Research Department decided to classify the diverse patterns of screen media usage into distinct categories using Video Research Ltd.'s expanded Media Contact Environment Survey data "MCR/ex" from fiscal year 2014. Two key features unique to this analysis are:

Screen media usage behavior classified into 12 patterns.

Screen media usage was categorized as: ① "Terrestrial TV viewing" ② "BS/CS satellite TV viewing" ③ "Recorded program playback" ④ "Package media playback (DVD, etc.)"⑤ "Video game use"; on PCs: ⑥ "Email use" ⑦ "Internet use" ⑧ "SNS use"; and on smartphones, feature phones, and tablets: ⑨ "Email use" ⑩ "Internet use" ⑪ "SNS use" ⑫ "PC/mobile game use".

We redefined weekdays and holidays to understand information behaviors.

It is well known that media contact behaviors differ significantly between weekdays and holidays. Furthermore, in recent years, the diversification of occupations and the expansion of the service industry have led to the emergence of various work patterns, meaning weekends and public holidays are not necessarily days off. Therefore, we attempted to more accurately grasp information behaviors by defining weekdays as "days when the individual worked or attended school for even a little while" and holidays as "days when the individual did not work or attend school at all."

This time, we created media clusters using only the "screen media contact time" of young people (aged 15-29), without considering communication awareness or values whatsoever. We then profiled each cluster.

As a result, we were able to extract a total of 10 clusters from the classification of young people's media contact behavior patterns. We will introduce how young people differentiate their screen media usage through seven of these clusters.

◆Emerging Coexistence: Watching Terrestrial TV Broadcasts and Using Other Media

Several clusters revealed that even among young people with diversified screen media usage, terrestrial TV viewing and other media consumption coexist effectively within their daily lives.

Young people overwhelmingly centered on "terrestrial viewing" remain prevalent.

Approximately 28% of young people engaged in information behaviors centered around "terrestrial viewing," such as the 'Terrestrial-Oriented Female Students' cluster and the 'Terrestrial-Oriented Housewives' cluster.

【Cluster 1】 Terrestrial TV-Oriented Female Students

【Cluster 2】 TerrestrialTV-Oriented Housewives