James study: Mobile phone and Internet most popular among young people
On Monday, the James Study on young people's media usage was presented in Geneva. The national study shows that young people now use cell phones and the Internet significantly more often than they watch television.
In terms of media use, the cell phone ranks first among Swiss young people, followed by the use of Internet services and then (in descending order) MP3 (listening to music), television, music CD, radio, daily newspaper and computer and video games. The latter are used more frequently by boys than by girls. However, the popularity of the media varies greatly from language region to language region. For example, computer games are used significantly more often in Latin-speaking Switzerland than in German-speaking Switzerland. The linguistic differences show that it is hardly possible to speak of "Swiss" media use, according to the study authors.
Around 95% of respondents have access to the Internet from home. On average, they spend 2 hours and 5 minutes surfing the Internet on weekdays, and just under an hour more on days off. When it comes to searching for information, Web 2.0 (e.g. Facebook) is on a par with conventional search engines such as Google.
The study also investigated what information young people disclose about themselves on the internet. Gender is the most frequently disclosed information on social networks such as Facebook, even before real names. Over 80 percent of those surveyed publish photos or videos of themselves. The older the young people are, the more personal information they disclose. The full results report of the JAMES study can be accessed online at www.psychologie.zhaw.ch/JAMES.
About the study
The James Study is a representative national study on the media use of young people. It was conducted by the ZHAW Zurich University of Applied Sciences in cooperation with the Université de Genève and the Università della Svizzera italiana in summer 2010. The study was financed and supported by Swisscom (cooperation partner of the ZHAW). As part of the study, over 1,000 young people between the ages of 12 and 19 were surveyed in all three language regions of Switzerland.
