Teenager Talks About What His Friends Do Online; Media Flips Out
from the someone-please-explain dept
The media seems to be falling all over itself to report on the "insights" coming out of a "report" put out by Morgan Stanley about how teens are using technology today. The report, it appears, isn't an actual research analysis or anything. It's just a 15-year-old intern writing about what his friends use technology-wise. That's not to say it's not interesting. It certainly gives a decent view of what's happening in one kid's social circle. Nothing in it seems all that surprising. Kids communicate a lot on the internet. They don't buy music (oh yeah, he contradicts that "other" questionable study of the day that claimed streaming was replacing downloads by noting that his friends prefer to actually have the files, but don't pay for them). It's difficult to see why this is a big deal, but because Morgan Stanley put its logo on it, suddenly it's getting a ton of coverage from Bloomberg, The Telegraph, The Guardian, The Financial Times and others. It's as if none of them have ever thought to actually ask a teenager what kind of media and technology he or she uses. But the key point here is that while there are some useful insights raised by the kid (though, nothing too surprising) it's still just the anecdotal musings of one kid.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: media, technology, teens
Companies: morgan stanley
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I still wonder what morgan stanley was smoking
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Re: I still wonder what morgan stanley was smoking
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Re: I still wonder what morgan stanley was smoking
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Then perhaps they wait for businesses to come knocking on their door with business plans written on the back of cocktail napkins that Morgan Stanley can rubber stamp.
They make money in the short term, by creating a bubble and all is well.
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They're investing in our future, our children.
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but i read about this on tech crunch earlier and thought it was pretty interesting.
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what the hell
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Parents rarely see the value in buying a $300 graphics card to make the PC video game friendly when the same money could by a Xbox 360 (the value lies in not having to pay for any game if you don't want to)
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This is from the corporate-lackey-sounding-like-a-schoolboy dept methinks.
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Even high school statistics students can tell you this.
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Better than the alternative
Thank God someone left the sheep pen, even if it was to post some grade kid's summer report.
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Re: Better than the alternative
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seems valid
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Shooting Messengers?
If he is wrong, you need to say where.
If he is broadly right, then who cares about approach - roughly right, early is always far more valuable than totally right, late.
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Re: Shooting Messengers?
If he is wrong, you need to say where.
If he is broadly right, then who cares about approach - roughly right, early is always far more valuable than totally right, late.
Er, I didn't say he was wrong. I don't think he is wrong. In fact, I said "It certainly gives a decent view of what's happening in one kid's social circle. Nothing in it seems all that surprising."
My problem is not with the piece. It's with the media misrepresenting what it represents. He didn't say anything new or surprising. I didn't say it was wrong and I'm confused how you would read my piece and interpret it that way.
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Huh?
Huh? PC gaming is dead amongst teens, yet they download copies for free rather than buy them?
The hyperbole used in his "analysis" is so excessive as to make his points seem contradictory. Blah, blah, 15 year old, what do you expect, etc. I don't care. Morgan Stanley should have some standards. Have they never heard of an editor? What better way to teach an intern about analyses than letting an editor hand him back his draft dripping in red?
As for the statistics of his paper, they're meaningless. I could just as easily generate those numbers based on a gut feeling that my peers watch X hours of TV a week and, well, gee, my friends and I like football and Jimmy talks about watching ESPN and Tommy says he saw that, too, so they must watch it fairly regularly, etc. 8/10 kids downloading music sounds reasonable, and no one's ever actually bought a CD.
Wait, when did the British school system start using MPAA propaganda?
There is so much in this report that should never have been seen outside of Morgan Stanley. It's embarrassing to see a major corporation publish something like this as anything other than a joke. All the positive press for such a poorly written analysis is definitely going to teach the kid the wrong less.
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Re: Huh?
Stop overanalyzing and just accept that Morgan Stanley was trying to encourage the youth that is the next generation to develop some skills and this was an excellent start for him.
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