INTRODUCTION
One out of 3 people in the world today is a teenager. US
teens comprise 13% of the population, the largest
generation in history [1]. With greater access to
technology than any before, today’s youth are coming of
age with the rapid growth of the Internet and global
adoption of mobile phones and other wireless devices.
Seen as a bellwether of future trends with substantial
spending power, teens are a focus of media attention and
market research. Yet aside from large quantitative use
surveys [3] and a barrage of untested media reports, there is
little publicly available research to inform designers and
other HCI practitioners on young people’s motivations and
experiences in using communication media. We conducted
a preliminary study to do just that.