Amanda Lenhart spoke at the National Academies “Health, Safety & Well-Being of Young Adults” Symposium on May 7th in Washington, DC http://www.iom.edu/Activities/Children/ImprovingYoungAdultHealth/2013-MAY-07.aspx. Amanda discussed how young adults ages 18-29 use mobile phones and social media and they ways in which this has changed how young people make the transition from childhood to adulthood today

1. Health, Safety & Well-Being of Young Adults
Symposium
National Academies
May 7, 2013
Amanda Lenhart, Senior Researcher, Director of
Teens & Technology
Pew Research Center
Young Adults, Mobile Phones
and Social Media:
Technology and the
Transition to adulthood

2. About Pew Internet / Pew Research
• Part of the Pew Research Center, a non-partisan “fact tank” in
Washington, DC
• Studies how people use digital technologies
• Does not promote specific technologies or make policy
recommendations
• Data for this talk is from nationally representative telephone
surveys of U.S. adults and teens (on landlines and cell phones)
12-minute presentation version: We’re
the public opinion, “just the facts”,
non-advocacy, non-policy part of the
Pew universe

3. • Moved from a stationary slow connectivity marked by
one way information flows to mobile, social just-in-time
access to people and places
• Mobile connectivity changes access (and expectations of
access) to people and information
• Social media is the seamless addition to young adults’
social lives
• Mobile and Social = Geo-location
• More opportunities to have voice be heard, but also
public visibility and persistence of missteps
Technology inflects multiple aspects of late
adolescence

4. 46% of US adults used the internet
5% had home broadband connections
53% owned a cell phone
0% connected to internet wirelessly
0% used social network sites
_________________________
Information flowed mainly one way
Information consumption was a stationary
activity
Internet Use in the U.S. in 2000
Slow, stationary connections
built around a desktop
computer

5. 82% of US adults use the internet
2/3 have broadband at home
88% have a cell phone; 46% are smartphone
users
19% have a tablet computer
19% have an e-reader
2/3 are wireless internet users
65% of online adults use SNS
The Internet in 2012
Mobile devices have
fundamentally changed the
relationship between
information, time and space

6. • Moved from a stationary slow connectivity marked by
one way information flows to mobile, social just-in-time
access to people and places
• Mobile connectivity changes access (and expectations of
access) to people and information
• Social media is the seamless addition to young adults’
social lives
• Mobile + Social + Geo-location =
• More opportunities to have voice be heard, but also
public visibility and persistence of missteps
Technology inflects multiple aspects of late
adolescence

10. Managing & recording life on the go
• 94% of cell owners 18-29 take photos with their
phones
• 68% of 18-29 record videos with their phones
• 65% of 18-29 do email on their phones
• 45% do banking on their mobile phones
• Much more likely to engage in “just-in-time”
information seeking activities on phone than
older adults
• Substantially more likely to do all these (and
more) on mobiles than older adults

11. • Moved from a stationary slow connectivity marked by
one way information flows to mobile, social just-in-time
access to people and places
• Mobile connectivity changes access (and expectations of
access) to people and information
• Social media is the seamless addition to young adults’
social lives
• Mobile + Social + Geo-location =
• More opportunities to have voice be heard, but also
public visibility and persistence of missteps
Technology inflects multiple aspects of late
adolescence

14. • Moved from a stationary slow connectivity marked by
one way information flows to mobile, social just-in-time
access to people and places
• Mobile connectivity changes access (and expectations of
access) to people and information
• Social media is the seamless addition to young adults’
social lives
• Mobile + Social + Geo-location =
• More opportunities to have voice be heard, but also
public visibility and persistence of missteps
Technology inflects multiple aspects of late
adolescence

15. 6/12/2013 15
Foursquare – 2009
Today, 5% of cell owners
“check-in” with their location

17. • Moved from a stationary slow connectivity marked by
one way information flows to mobile, social just-in-time
access to people and places
• Mobile connectivity changes access (and expectations of
access) to people and information
• Social media is the seamless addition to young adults’
social lives
• Mobile + Social + Geo-location =
• More opportunities to have voice be heard, but also
public visibility and persistence of missteps
Technology inflects multiple aspects of late
adolescence

18. 6/12/2013 18
Snapchat

19. • Moved from a stationary slow connectivity marked by
one way information flows to mobile, social just-in-time
access to people and places
• Mobile connectivity changes access (and expectations of
access) to people and information
• Social media is the seamless addition to young adults’
social lives
• Mobile + Social + Geo-location =
• More opportunities to have voice be heard, but also
public visibility and persistence of missteps
• Health
Technology inflects multiple aspects of late
adolescence

20. Amanda Lenhart
Senior Researcher, Director of Teens &
Technology
Pew Research Center’s Internet Project
alenhart@pewresearch.org
@amanda_lenhart
@pewinternet
@pewresearch