In its most recent extra-special edition, Sticky has chosen to look at possibly the most mysterious, and yet at the same time the most openly honest, group of all: Teens.

They are often mysteries to their own parents, let alone to the rest of us, and Sticky decided it was time to take a deep look into the lives of teenagers all over the world, from Argentina to Germany, the UK to the US, and South Korea to Mexico.

We asked about a range of topics:

  1. Technology and Gadgets
  2. Social Media
  3. Music
  4. Gaming and Gamification
  5. Socialising and Hanging Out
  6. Movies
  7. Fashion and Shopping

And we got some amazing responses.

Check out the 7 articles in this special edition, which are all inspired or written by teenagers, about these topics and what they mean to their lives.

Viacom’s Nickelodeon Consumer Insight Panels from the US, Latin America and the UK did us proud with some interesting survey data from their tween and teen panellists. We surveyed 400 teens and tweens aged between 12-19 across the global markets.

Here are the key findings:

  • On-line: more than their mobile phones or their TVs, the one device globally that teens all say they couldn’t live without is… their computer/laptop. This was especially high in the US, with 7 out of 10 teens stating that they can’t imagine life without it! We’re also now seeing the trend in touch screen portable devices revolutionising their online behaviour further.
  • On-air: a TV is the ONLY device that they ALL said they have, and after online search engines, TV is the 2nd most important place teens go to find out about new stuff.
  • Social networks expanding: as expected, globally Facebook and Twitter are the top social networks, but there are some interesting regional differences after that: US teens like Instagram, UK teens are all about Tumblr and Latin American teens prefer Pinterest.
  • Music to their ears: MP3 players or iPods are overwhelmingly teens’ favourite way of listening to music, but online is also popular, especially in Latin America.
  • Old-school: Radio continues to be important in the UK, whilst live concerts are more important to Latin American teens, with 1 in 5 saying that is their favourite way to listen to music.
  • Gaming freaks: 8 out of 10 teens say that they love or like gaming, as gamification continues to infiltrate their lives in even more ways.
  • Hang time: teens hang out with their friends a LOT, especially in Latin America. An average 2 out of 3 teens are hanging out with their friends outside of school every day/ most days or several times a week.