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as they study online
Marketers tapping into this once sacrosanct time
By Marty Beard
Just a few years ago, there was one time during the day that teens were out of reach for advertisers: study time.
No longer. These days the vast majority of teens do their homework on the web, and that's making them an increasingly available and attractive target for marketers.
A recent report from the Pew Internet and American Life Project shows that 94 percent of online youths ages 12 to 17 use the internet for school-related research.
"Marketers are all over these kids," says project director Lee Rainie. "They are using every tool at their disposal.
"We have found ways to commercialize virtually every other activity in our culture, so it shouldn't be surprising to see that the internet is permitting some companies to commercialize homework."
And teens are receptive to such pitches. Fifty-four percent of online teens have clicked on ads, and two-thirds of teens have gone online to investigate items they might want to purchase.
If teens have internet access, they are definitely online, making them fair game for marketers. Given that 73 percent of teens are internet users, they’re easy prey for marketers, whether they’re doing schoolwork online, shopping, playing games, chatting, or doing all of these things at once.
Pew’s findings suggest that teens are certain to visit education-themed sites.
Researchers looked at 100 homework-help sites, 61 of which were established by private organizations. Individuals created a third of the sites, with libraries making up the rest.
Many of the private sites are free and ad-supported. Magazines, software makers, computer makers, phone companies, e-tailers and credit card companies are among the advertisers taking advantage of the captive teenage student audience.
Pew identifies seven types of homework-help sites: first among them aggregate or portal sites, which assemble links to other sources of research and information on many topics. One example is Homeworkhelp.about.com.
Other types of sites students turn to include articles and information sites; essay sites, where students can buy pre-written papers; ask-an-expert sites such as Ask KidsConnect; book notes and summary sites such as Cliffsnotes.com; online encyclopedia and library sites, such as Britannica.com; and online tutoring services such as TutorCafe.
In addition to specialized web sites, teens use email and instant messaging for schoolwork. Forty-one percent of online teens exchange emails and instant messages with friends, classmates and teachers for homework help.
Forty-seven percent of wired girls have emailed or instant-messaged a classmate or teacher about schoolwork, as have 36 percent of online boys. In all, 78 percent of respondents say they believe the internet helps them with schoolwork.
Thirty-four percent of wired teenagers have downloaded a study aid, and 17 percent have created a web site for a school project. Fifty-eight percent have used web sites that have been published specifically for a class or for their school.
Seventy-one percent say the internet was the major source for their most recent school paper, project or report, and just 24 percent reported getting the bulk of their sources from a bricks-and-mortar library. Four percent of respondents rely equally on the web and on the library.
This could drive libraries into obsolescence. As one survey respondent, a 15-year-old boy, told Pew:
"Without the internet you need to go to the library and walk around looking for books," he says. "In today’s world, you can just go home and get into the internet and type in your search term."
But the institution can survive and even thrive in the new information environment, Rainie says.
"Libraries can be key access points to the internet, especially for families that don't have access," Rainie says. "And we will always need reference guides--call them ‘librarians’--to help us figure out what information is good and authoritative and what information is lousy."
Heavy student internet use inevitably has led to cheating. Eighteen percent of online teens report knowing someone who’s used the internet to cheat on schoolwork.
But Rainie doesn’t think the internet will encourage all students to cheat or turn them all into lazy scholars who can’t conduct independent research.
"There have always been lazy students–kids who in pre-internet days copied verbatim the World Book or Encyclopedia Britannica article on the subject they were assigned," Rainie says.
"Sure the ease and convenience and abundant content on the internet allow lazy students to be even more lazy. But the internet also allows the diligent to be even more diligent. And it certainly makes a much wider variety of information available to users."
Pew reached these conclusions by surveying 754 kids ages 12 to 17 in November and December of last year.
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School-related
Internet Use |
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Activity |
Percent |
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Used the internet for school research |
94 |
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Used the internet as the major source for their most recent school project |
71 |
|
Used a web site set up by a school or class |
58 |
|
Downloaded a study aid |
34 |
|
Created a web page for a school project |
17 |
| Source:
Pew Internet and American Life Project
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Teens Who
Know Someone |
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Group |
Percent |
|
All teens |
18 |
|
Boys |
21 |
|
Girls |
15 |
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Younger teens (ages 12-14) |
12 |
|
Older teens (ages15-17) |
23 |
|
Teens who have been online for a year or less |
9 |
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Teens who have been online for 2-3 years |
19 |
|
Teens who have been online for more than 3 years |
28 |
| Source:
Pew Internet and American Life Project
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September 5, 2001 © 2001 Media Life
-Marty Beard is a staff writer for Media Life.
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