First, a study just published in the official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics concludes that “nearly half of US high school students aged ≥16 years report TWD during the past 30 days, and these students are more likely to engage in additional risky MV behaviors.”

What risky behaviors, you ask? Well, the study, based on data from the CDC, found that these teens who texted while driving were more likely to not wear their seatbelts and were also more likely to drink and drive (or at least ride in the car with someone who has been drinking).

The CDC study asked a sample of around 8.500 high school students whether they had texted while driving in the past month. Just shy of 45% copped to it. Those teens were then found to participate in other high-risk driving activities at a higher rate.

“Multitasking is fine if you’re sitting in your dorm room or at home in your bedroom, but multitasking in the car is a terrible idea,” said CDC director Tom Frieden. “It’s amazing how quickly things can go wrong in the car.”

Here’s another alarming find for you parents out there: according to another study, texting while driving is now killing more teens that drunk driving.

The study comes from the Cohen Children’s Medical Center in New York. They say that over 3,000 teens now die every year as the result of texting while driving. That number just beats the number killed in drunk driving accidents – 2,700.

Of course, texting is a more common practice than drinking while driving. But still, it’s a shocking figure.

“The reality is kids aren’t drinking seven days per week – they are carrying their phones and texting seven days per week, so you intuitively know this a more common occurrence,” said Dr. Andrew Adesman, Chief of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics at Cohen Children’s Medical Center.

Although these studies focused on teens, it’s not just the younger crowd who is guilty of texting while driving. A recent AT&T study found that 49% of adults admitted to the practice, compared to just 43% of teens. And it’s not for lack of knowledge. 98% admitted that they knew it was wrong, but did it anyway. 39 states currently ban texting while driving and another 6 ban it for novice drivers.

Millennials, defined as those aged 18-34, were found to be more willing to allow companies track them or access their personal information compared to those 35 and older. Millennials were also found to be more receptive to the idea of targeted advertising, and were much more active on social media. All of this, though, is predicated on receiving some benefit for the lack of privacy.

“Millennials think differently when it comes to online privacy,” said Elaine Coleman, managing director of media and emerging technologies for Bovitz, the research firm that conducted the survey in conjunction with USC. “It’s not that they don’t care about it – rather they perceive social media as an exchange or an economy of ideas, where sharing involves participating in smart ways.”

Though the social benefit of most social media is clear, even more tangible benefits still don’t seem to entice those over 35 as much as they do Millennials. One question, for example, asked whether a survey respondent would reveal their location to a company in exchange for coupons to nearby businesses. 56% of Millennials would share their location, but only 42% of older respondents said they would.

“Online privacy is dead – Millennials understand that, while older users have not adapted,” said Jeffrey Cole, director of the USC Annenberg Center for the Digital Future. “Millennials recognize that giving up some of their privacy online can provide benefits to them. This demonstrates a major shift in online behavior – there’s no going back.”

(Infographic courtesy the USC Annenberg Center for the Digital Future)

(via BGR)

And you probably know that Digg is working to build a replacement. They announced this literally hours after Google made their announcement that they were killing the product. Digg has said from the start that they want to build something that’s fast and simple, and could serve as a true replacement for Google Reader.

Today, Digg has published the results of a survey they sent out to over 17,000 people (8,000+ responses so far), which sought to uncover exactly what people want in the upcoming Digg Reader.

And here’s the most important finding:

What you’re looking at it a word cloud, charting the responses to the question “if there’s one thing you could remove from Google Reader, what would it be?”

Nothing. Google Reader users don’t want anything more. They just want Google Reader. Or, since the second-most tracked word was “google,” they simply want a Reader that functions exactly like Google Reader – with or without Google’s hand.

The survey feedback also uncovered some stats about RSS reader users, like most subscribe to a good number of feeds (roughly 70% subscribe to more than 51) and 80% check their feeds multiple times a day. Nearly 80% said that they use Google Reader for both work and play, and over 40% said that Google Reader is the only RSS reader that they use (the nest most popular feed reader was Feedly).

Some of the feedback gave Digg an idea of what was most important to include in their upcoming reader. For instance, 67% said that they use keyboard shortcuts in Google Reader at least some of the time. That prompted Digg to proclaim that those are “definitely on the list.”

On the flip side, there was search:

“This was an interesting data point. While 25% reported never using search, over just over half said that they sometimes do. Search is a huge investment in terms of development time and infrastructure costs. We don’t yet know if we’ll have the necessary infrastructure up and running in time for our initial beta launch, but it’s definitely on the roadmap,” says Digg.

There’s definitely going to be a hole in the market for a Google Reader-like reader come July 1st when it all goes dark – even with other options already available. Whether or not Digg can step up into that role remains to be seen. Let’s think positively.

The data comes from Piper Jaffray’s 25th bi-annual “Taking Stock with Teens” survey that looks at everything from online shopping and fashion, to tech, social, and gaming.

The survey looked at which social networks are the “most important” for teens. It found that Facebook still holds the top spot – but barely. And it’s been declining over the past year.

Facebook is the most important social network for 33% of the teens surveyed, which is down 9% from 42% back in the Fall of 2012 (the last time this survey was published).

Twitter, on the other hand, saw an increase from 27% to 30% in teens claiming it as the most important social site in their lives. Instagram, which is owned by Facebook but has stayed independent, grew in popularity from 12% to 17%.

Watch out Facebook, Twitter is nearly as important to teens as you.

The only other significant change in social media loyalty among teens in the past few months is in the “other” category. Piper Jaffray notes that the top 5 “write-in” picks for most important social media service were Wanelo, Snapchat, 4chan, Kik, and Twitter’s just-launched six-second video app Vine.

Another interesting find from Piper Jaffray’s survey: Teens still love their iPhones. Nearly half (48%) of those surveyed said that they already own an iPhone (up from 40% in the Fall) and 62% said that they plan on buying the iPhone as their next device. Compare that with Android, which had 23% of teens expressing future desire.

[Image via toodlepip, Flickr]

Piper Jaffray’s 25th bi-annual teens and devices survey just came out. And in continuing what has been a trend over the last few surveys, Apple comes out on top. Although Android OS smartphones made some (very) small gains, the iPhone is far and away the most desired smartphone on the market among our nation’s bright future.

According to the survey, 48% of teens already own an iPhone. That’s up from 40% in October (the last time this survey was published), which is in turn up from 34% in the spring of 2012. So, in a year, we’re looking at a 14% increase in the iPhone’s market share among teens.

And 62% of teens said that their next device purchase will be an iPhone.

On the Android side, 23% expressed future plans to buy a smartphone, which is up 1% from last October.

Overall preference for the OS – 59% of teens say they’re likely to buy an iOS device (unchanged) compared to 21% likely to buy an Android OS device (up 1%).

Proclamations of the iPhone’s decline in popularity among today’s youth have been coming for a couple of years now. Upon the launch of the iPhone 4S, you may remember HTC President Martin Fitcher said that the iPhone is a dad phone, and that kids don’t find them cool anymore. Then, a couple of months later, a Nokia product manager called iPhone’s “black mono boxes” and said that the youth are fed up with the ubiquitous Apple product.

More recently, you may have read one of the many articles discussing the iPhone’s loss of cool with teens. “Teens are telling us Apple is done,” said one youth marketing director.

Sure, the U.S. smartphone market still has room to grow. And that means that all types of devices have room to grow. And with the gains we’ve seen recently from manufacturers like Samsung, it’s possible that Apple loses some of its dominance over the next few survey periods. But for now, it’s clear that teens love their iPhones.

[Image via heyheygig, Flickr]

AT&T has a new survey out as part of its “It Can Wait” anti-texting while driving campaign. This one looked at the text while driving problem with commuters – adults going to and from work.

And the results may surprise you. The survey, which looked at over 1,000 commuters, showed that 49% admit to texting while driving. That’s more than teens, who are texting and driving at a rate of 43%, according to a previous AT&T study.

In that study, 77% of teens said that although adults warn them of the dangers, most of them “do it themselves all the time,” so we probably should’ve seen these results coming.

According to the survey, the texting and driving problem is actually getting worse in adult commuters. 60% said that they never texted while driving three years ago. And a whopping 98% said that they knew it was dangerous to text while driving, but do it anyway. 95% acknowledged that just reading an incoming text while driving was also wrong.

“Businesses can help keep their employees and others on the road safe by encouraging responsible behavior behind the wheel, including obeying all laws related to the use of electronic devices,” said U.S. Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Thomas J. Donohue. “We also encourage all businesses to consider joining the ‘It Can Wait’ movement to end texting while driving. Together we can help turn the tide on this serious issue.”

As of today, 39 states ban texting while driving for all drivers, and another 6 ban the practice for novice drivers. Still, these surveys make one thing clear – awareness campaigns are fighting an uphill battle. Nearly everyone (98%!) knows that it’s dangerous to text and drive, but nearly 50% do it anyway. Sure, knowing is half the battle. But people know – and it seems, at least for now, that they don’t care.

The study, which looked at the mobile habits of nearly 7,500 18-44-year-olds over the course of one week in March, found that just under half (49.4%) of the U.S. population is using smartphones – about 155.1 million people. And that Facebook is used by 70% of them. That’s #3 overall, just behind web browsing at 73% and email and 78%. Facebook usage beat out games, maps, photos, and video streaming.

Since the study was paid for by Facebook, there’s plenty of data on how Facebook is used on mobile devices in a typical week. First off, Facebook was found to account for 1 in ever 4 minutes spent on social and communication activities on smartphones. The average survey participant spent 32 minutes and 51 seconds on Facebook every day. Out of the 70% of people that use Facebook on their device, 61% said that they check it every day.

That roughly 33 minutes spent on Facebook every day breaks down like this: 16 minutes browsing the news feed, nearly 10 messaging, and just over 6 posting statuses and photos.

These Facebook sessions last, on average, about 2 minutes and 22 seconds and people check Facebook around 14 times a day, on average.

The study also looks at other aspect of mobile use apart from Facebook, and some fo the findings are interesting:

• 25% of those surveyed said that they can’t even recall the last time their smartphone wasn’t next to them. Another 24% said that they spend less that 30 minutes throughout the day without their device within ear shot.
• 34% said they feel “excited” when they post a photo on Instagram, and 27% feel excited while posting LinkedIn updates.
• Half of those surveyed said they tell Facebook when they go to the movies. 13% tweet about it.
• 79% of people reach for their smartphones within 15 minutes of waking up. 62% do so immediately after waking up. Those numbers only increase when you narrow it down to 18-24-year-olds.
• People are only using 16% of their communication time on their phones to make calls. All the other time is spent texting, emailing, and social networking.

For the complete study, head here. It’s a pretty interesting look at the current state of mobile connections in the U.S., if you can deal with a little bit of obvious bias toward making Facebook look like the all-consuming timelord. Come to think about it, who’s really going to argue with that notion?

Y Combinator partner and Posterous co-founder Garry Tan, with the help of Survata, looked at the social networking habits of teenagers and young adults. What he found was that Facebook is not the most popular of the bunch.

That honor belongs to Tumblr. The survey broke respondents up into two groups – those aged 13 to 18 and those aged 19-25. Both groups reported higher use on Tumblr than on Facebook. Combined, 54% of the 1,038 respondents said they used Facebook regularly. The survey defined regularly as “several hours a week or more.” But edging Facebook out by a small margin was Tumblr, which registered 59% use with those aged 13 to 25.

Twitter came in third of the social networks studied, with 20% use across the entire sample. Instagram logged 16% use and newcomer Snapchat saw 9%.

They also found something interesting – the younger the respondent, the more social network-happy they were in general

“Survata cofounder Aaron Wenger noted: ‘Usage levels were higher among 13-18yr olds than 19-25yr olds for every social network. The biggest differences were for Snapchat (13% for 13-18yr olds vs 4% for 19-25yr olds) and Instagram (21% vs 11%).’”

Still, Facebook is still incredibly popular among this age group, but it’s interesting to see that the younger crowd is not completely loyal to big blue.

[Garry Tan via Business Insider]

The survey comes from Piper Jaffray (via AppleInsider), who says that 53.3% of those surveyed said they plan on purchasing Apple’s most recent smartphone. That number was 47.7% right before the device was unveiled and 54.9% right after.

The survey was conducted on December 12th and involved 800 participants.

“We believe this is a positive that demonstrates the majority of U.S. consumers want an iPhone 5 even following the launch craze, and despite the Maps issues that have been widely noted,” noted Gene Munster.

Of course, Apple Maps as a deterrent of buying the device may be a thing of the past. As you probably know, Google just launched Google Maps for iOS – their first maps app since Apple cut them out of iOS 6. The app is receiving rave reviews and is already the top free app in the App Store.

Buying an Android-powered smartphone accounted for 35.3% of people’s plans for the next three months. 6.5% said that plan on buying a Windows Phone and 4.9% said BlackBerry.

Piper Jaffray also concluded that demand for the iPhone 5 is somewhere between 30% and 40% more than demand for the iPhone 4S.

The company’s “dream jobs” study also found the most-cited jobs for both men and women.

The top 5 childhood dream jobs for men were: Professional or Olympic Athlete (8.2%), Pilot (6.8%), Scientist (6.8%), Lawyer (5.9%), and Astronaut (5%).

For women: Teacher (11.4%), Veterinarian (9%), Writer (8.1%), Doctor or Nurse (7.15), and Singer (7.1%).

For those who said they don’t currently work in a field related to their dream job, most cited simply becoming interested in something else as the main reason why. Also, 70% of those surveyed said that being happy with their work is the most important quality in their “dream job.”

Check out their infographic for the survey below: