At a recent web related conference a half-dozen 17-18 year-olds sat down to answer questions on what they like and dislike in regards to their media and technology consumption habits. Some very interesting comments emerged from the conversation. Definitely read this transcript of the conversation there is much more information there than in my post.

1. Social habits in high school revolve around MySpace and instant messaging. Many MySpace users graduate to Facebook once they reach college. Both are social networking websites. Read more on social networking

2. Most won't pay for music, but do use iTunes for research before downloading free music using BitTorrent

3. Their shopping habits are extremely sophisticated with most using one or more price comparison websites before buying. Froogle seems to be the most popular. It is interesting to point out that this fearless age group is afraid of being ripped off on eBay, so most don't use it.

4. The popularity of Yahoo is low due to it's cluttered interface and option overload. Google is the go-to favorite for searching and research. In addition most rely on more than one news source for information, never placing sole trust in one source. Daily Show + Google News + topical weblog = new age newspaper

5. When asked how they would go about researching the purchase of CD player, which is definitely a loaded question, one of the students responded "who would want a cd player?"

Keywords: cellphone, im, myspace, google, bittorrent, froogle, free

[source: Jeffrey McManus]

tags: catalyst studios, mobile, social, trend