Vigeos & Insights

Neo-Frugalists: gTrend Teen Report – Preview No. 3

For teens, having less to spend is a shocking new experience.  But with fewer available jobs and smaller allowances from cash-strapped parents, teens are confronting a new economic reality.  So how do young consumers still buy the latest Techno-bling?  They get frugal and turn it into sport.  In the new gTrend Teen Report, Neo-Frugalism has emerged as one of the unexpected byproducts of the recession.  Neo-Frugalism is the skill and passion that resourceful teens are applying to the acquisition of technology and other badge items.  Our research shows that instead of buying on impulse, today’s teens have become more value-driven […]

Textual Feeling: gTrend Teen Report – Preview No. 2

Teens remain as elusive and contradictory as ever.  Nothing expresses that more emphatically than the new teen social dynamic known as “Textual Feeling.” Identified in the new gTrend Teen Report, “Textual Feeling” is phenomenon in which teens share their deepest emotions via technology for all to see.  Because technology is an essential part of who they are, many teens routinely express their secret hopes, dreams and fears via social networking sites and online. This shift to communal sharing of private thoughts is radically changing interpersonal communication among teens.  For some, expressing themselves through technology – online conversations or texting – […]

Chill Challenged: gTrend Teen Report Preview #1

Breaking through To Chill-Challenged Teens What does it take to reach the teen market today? The question can’t be adequately answered until it’s understood that teens consider technology a fundamental part of their lives, not a nice-to-have accessory.  Having been immersed in technology almost since birth, teens are unable to relax without it. They are accustomed to having every moment of their time, even “downtime,” being filled.  In the new gTrend Teen Report to be released in September, we refer to this generation of teens as Chill Challenged.  During a typical day, Chill Challenged teens spend nearly twice as much […]

Classrooms go high-tech to engage students

By MEGAN K. SCOTT Associated Press Writer Posted: July 16, 2009 NEW YORK — Unlike many teachers, Beth Simon hasn’t banned her college students from using their cell phones or the Internet during class. Instead, the computer science professor encourages them to text message responses to her questions and research information on the Web while she is lecturing. “They’re going to use it no matter what,” said Simon, of the University of California, San Diego. “How do you use this ubiquitous technology that’s out there to change the dynamic of the classroom, to engage the students?” The measure of a […]

Young workers push employers for wider Web access

By MARTHA IRVINE – July 12, 2009 CHICAGO (AP) — Ryan Tracy thought he’d entered the Dark Ages when he graduated college and arrived in the working world. His employer blocked access to Facebook, Gmail and other popular Internet sites. He had no wireless access for his laptop and often ran to a nearby cafe on work time so he could use its Wi-Fi connection to send large files. Sure, the barriers did what his employer intended: They stopped him and his colleagues from using work time to goof around online. But Tracy says the rules also got in the […]

Explosion of networking sites can result in ‘sociability fatigue’

Explosion of networking sites can result in ‘sociability fatigue’ 4/23/09 By Jessica Schreindl news@joplinglobe.com Vanessa Wilcox spent her Sunday online. The 20-year-old mass-communications major at Missouri Southern State University logged on to the Internet at 9 a.m. and didn’t log off until 8 p.m. “I got up to go to the bathroom and eat and then I would come back,” she said. “I was trying to write a paper and then I started Googling and checking Facebook and then I started watching videos on YouTube. So I got nothing done.” Wilcox’s behavior is common among people her age. Gary Rudman, […]

Lessons in youth marketing during a recession

by Inyoung Hwang May 05, 2009 WASHINGTON – Companies have felt the need in this recession to ramp up innovative advertising tactics when targeting young adults, a demographic that has been elusive to marketers in recent years. The weakened consumer confidence and spending in the U.S. have affected an age-group previously thought to be more recession-resilient. A survey by the advertising agency J. Walter Thompson Company found 77 percent of young adults, people 18-29, feel nervous and anxious about the impact of the recession. Teen spending on fashion also declined 14 percent over the last year, according to a report […]

Youth Vs. Adults in Gadget Wars

By MARTHA IRVINE, AP National Writer Tuesday, January 22, 2008 Scott Seigal was awakened one recent early morning by a cell phone text message. It was from his girlfriend’s mother. His friends’ parents have posted greetings on his MySpace page for all the world to see. And his 72-year-old grandmother sends him online instant messages every day so they can better stay in touch while he’s at college. “It’s nice that adults know SOME things,” says Seigal, an 18-year-old freshman at Binghamton University in New York. He especially likes IMing with his grandma because he’s “not a huge talker on […]

Teens panic as they’re forced to unplug at camp

May 14, 2009 5:26 PM By MEGAN K. SCOTT, AP NEW YORK Tim Chai keeps in touch with friends through Facebook, listens to music on his iPod and never goes anywhere without his BlackBerry. So when the 17-year-old was looking for a summer camp, he ruled out a church camp with a no cell phone, no computer policy. “I just thought it was too much for me to handle,” said Tim, of Carmel, Ind. “I love my Internet. I love my phone. I’m not ashamed to say it.” For a generation used to texting, Facebook and YouTube, going away to […]

Are you a twit if you don’t want to Twitter?

May 13, 2009 By Martha Irvine, AP National Writer CHICAGO — Eily Toyama gave in after friends pestered her to join Facebook. But she used her cat’s name instead of her own so she could avoid networking requests from people she didn’t really want to connect to. And don’t even ask her about Twitter unless you want to get an eye roll. “I just don’t think people need to know that much about my life,” says the 32-year-old Chicagoan, who works in information technology. Call it online sociability fatigue. And it’s not just being felt by older folks who have […]