Young people are online for longer and longer

People often watch videos on YouTube or Netflix on the web, but they also make lively use of social networks. Instagram and Snapchat have displaced Facebook from the top of the social networks for the first time.

Since the first James survey in 2010, the time young people spend online has increased by half an hour per day: According to their data, they surf for an average of 2 hours and 30 minutes a day during the week (2014: 2 hours), and 3 hours and 40 minutes on weekends (2014: 3 hours). Since almost all Swiss young people own a smartphone and are increasingly surfing with a flat-rate subscription, mobile Internet access has become part of everyday life. This is shown by the current James Study 2016, which was carried out for the fourth time since 2010 and can thus reveal trends.

It is striking that young people with a migration background use the Net more intensively than young people with Swiss roots. "One explanation is that they can easily and directly stay in touch with their families and friends abroad via social media," says ZHAW researcher and study leader Daniel Süss, who conducted the James study with co-project leader Gregor Waller and his team.

Smartphone and tablets - always and everywhere

Virtually all Swiss young people today have their own cell phone - almost exclusively a smart one. Only one percent do not have their own cell phone. In addition, around 40 percent of young people have their own tablet, and four out of five have one in their household. As a constant companion, the smartphone is used for multimedia purposes everywhere and at all times and is increasingly replacing PCs, laptops, cameras, music players, radios, game consoles and watches.

Around a third of respondents have more than five gigabytes of data available each month. The motto is: make fewer phone calls and write fewer text messages, but surf the web more and use social networks or messenger apps like WhatsApp. 97 percent of young people communicate daily or several times a week via messenger apps. Nine out of ten often use social networks on their cell phones (2016: 87 percent; 2014: 76 percent). Short web videos are also increasingly watched via smartphone using Facebook, YouTube & Co. (2016: 78 percent; 2014: 69 percent; 2012: 40 percent). By comparison, regular phone calls have leveled off at 71 percent, while the use of text messaging dropped precipitously to 58 percent (2014: 69 percent; 2012: 93 percent).

Snapchat and Instagram overtake Facebook

94 percent of Swiss young people are registered with at least one social network. At 62 percent, Facebook is no longer the most popular social network among 12- to 19-year-olds for the first time since the first survey in 2010. The long-time leader has been overtaken by Instagram (81 percent) and Snapchat (80 percent). In addition, Facebook's frequency of use also declined the most: In 2014, 79 percent of young people still used the platform daily or several times a week; today, only 55 percent do. Facebook membership and frequency of use is strongly age-dependent: the younger the young people, the less often they use Facebook. The 12- to 15-year-olds bring new preferences with them. They prefer to be active on new platforms such as Instagram and Snapchat. Among 18- to 19-year-olds, however, four out of five are still on Facebook and 83 percent use it frequently. "It's not so much a migration to other platforms that we're seeing, but rather the emergence of a new generation of users," says Michael In Albon, Youth Media Protection Officer at Swisscom.

Social networks do not replace meetings with friends

The everyday media life of young people is primarily characterized by the cell phone: 99 percent use the mobile device daily or several times a week, often surfing the net (95 percent) or listening to music (94 percent).

Despite smartphones, tablets and the like, the practice of non-media leisure activities has remained stable since the first survey in 2010: 76 percent regularly meet up with friends (2014: 79 percent), 66 percent regularly play sports (2014: 64 percent) and 58 percent like to do nothing at all (2014: 60 percent). "It is true that young people can interact with their peers online anytime and anywhere. However, this has an accompanying function and cannot replace the need to be together," Daniel Süss is convinced. "In addition, group chats and social networks can also be a burden or the omnipresent smartphones can be a distraction in everyday life. That's why families should limit media use during meals or conversations and schools should have clear smartphone rules."

Web videos conquer the net

Computers and the Internet are used intensively by young people for entertainment purposes. Around four-fifths (79 percent) of Swiss young people use video portals such as YouTube, myVideo or Vimeo every day or several times a week. Streaming music from the Internet with Spotify, for example, has also gained in importance compared to 2014, with 68 percent doing this regularly (2014: 57 percent). In third place is browsing profiles on social networks (67 percent). The fact that videos and images are becoming increasingly important among young people is shown by the preference for websites. YouTube, for example, is by far the most popular website. Here, young people consume videos and music or learn with videos. This trend toward moving images is also evidenced by the growing importance of video streaming services such as Netflix and the image- and video-based platforms Instagram and Snapchat. A change in fan culture is also noteworthy. Seventy-five percent of teens can name a favorite YouTube star. "Young people today celebrate YouTube stars like they used to celebrate boy groups or girl groups," explains Suess.

Meet internet acquaintances

25 percent of young people in Switzerland state that they have already been approached online by a stranger with unwanted sexual intentions. This phenomenon is called cybergrooming. As in previous surveys, girls (34 percent) have had significantly more experience of this than boys (17 percent). 41 percent of Swiss young people have already met a person they met on the Internet offline. The older the young people, the more likely they are to have done so: among 12- to 13-year-olds, it is around a quarter, and among 18- to 19-year-olds, around half. "Meeting an Internet acquaintance physically is not a risk per se," says Michael In Albon. "However, certain rules must be observed when doing so. You should meet in a public place, for example, and an adult companion should be present at the first meeting."

James Study
The James studies map the media use of young people in Switzerland. James stands for "Youth, Activities, Media - Survey Switzerland" and is conducted every two years. In the representative study, more than 1,000 young people between the ages of 12 and 19 in the three major language regions of Switzerland have been surveyed about their media behavior by the ZHAW Zurich University of Applied Sciences on behalf of Swisscom since 2010. Swisscom is the client of the study, which is conducted every two years by the ZHAW.

More information:

The detailed results report (PDF)
Zhaw.ch/psychology/james
Swisscom.ch/james
#jamesstudy2016

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