Connected Teens: Follow the Drama to Find the Cash

If you want to know where technology might head next, watch teenagers. As the mom of a teen, business owner, technology writer, and social media thingamajig, I'm smack dab in the middle of watching teens hack tech for their own appropriately selfish and hormonal purposes.

One of the leading voices on teenagers and the use of Internet technology and social media is Danah Boyd, who has been studying the cultural and societal ramifications of this trend since our own 16-year-old daughter was a baby. In her book, It’s Complicated, she explores how the Internet is affecting identity, privacy, literacy and other aspects of the creatures we know as teenagers.

A trend I’ve noticed recently is that smartphones are transforming into pocket intranets and social media platforms outside of the applications they launch. Long gone is the original purpose of cell phones (to talk). Instead, social has taken over the device, moving it into new territories. And that makes me wonder - where will those teens go next?

Ubiquitous drama

We all know that teenagers (like some customers) can be dramatic. They learn how to be – and practice being -- dramatic, antagonistic, and otherwise highly (if-not-cryptically) communicative and emotional at home and at school, among family and peers alike.

For older teens (14 and up) who grew up with digital privilege in the connected age, the PC and laptop were their default devices. The experience of interacting socially is a bit different with today’s digital tweens, whose primary device has always been the smartphone. While both age groups have learned how to move the drama seamlessly along with them, the transition from PC to smartphone has been clunkier for older teens, who had to battle a dozen windows open on their laptops at once just to communicate "back in the day."

On smartphones, as Danah notes, "Teens turn to a plethora of popular services to socialize, gossip, share information, and hang out." Early on, I noticed teens using these services in a siloed manner. The kind of post that’s right for Instagram isn’t for Facebook; those sexting on snapchat because the chats "disappear” wouldn’t post the same content on Instagram or Vine.

Perhaps technologically we really do live in reverse-chronological order, looking back at those younger than us to become inspired and find our way. As I watch older teens stroll about and do their school work, it is clear that they -- like their tween counterparts -- have abandoned the laptop and even the tablet to go mobile in the smallest package possible.

With the proximity of the smartphone (back pocket or purse), both drama and comfort are only a text away, solace and companionship are readily accessible through a variety of apps and social sites. Emotions are cross-platform, amplified, and always on. And the chatter has escalated exponentially, dropping data nuggets along the way, waiting to be mined for new innovations and advancements -- and cash.

Conversation integration

As smartphones evolved beyond voice, and beyond application launcher, to become the great chatter integrator among teens, texting has morphed too. It’s not just texting a friend when you’re bored. It’s multiple mega-group chats all taking place at once in tandem with video posts, tweets, Instagram posts and the like.

Those conversations-in-a-pocket are always on. To get away from them, some opt for airplane mode, but that turns off, rather than turning down, the noise. So for now, there’s no easy way for teens to damp down the volume, velocity and variety of these conversations. For their emotional well-being, this level of connectivity can be a good thing and a stress factor all at once.

Our daughter told us: “Did you know they have done research that shows today’s teenagers have the equivalent stress as those in mental institutions back when you were kids -- and it's because of technology?” I didn’t look it up. But I bet she’s right.

Wearables and person as platform

With this rich history, it will be interesting to see how teens greet the coming revolution of wearables. In this Wired article, Deloitte's John Lucker explores the real value in wearables from a monetization perspective, with an eye on the value analytics can provide.

As John notes, privacy concerns can be a deterrent for adult users of many wearables, including fitness devices. He proposes that one of the reasons these devices haven’t become hotter than they are is “the dichotomy between a consumers’ desire for a product that has real, personal value to them and a product that may invade their privacy to some degree. In other words, it’s a struggle between cash and the creep out factor.”

Nearly immune to the creep-out factor, and with parents unaware of technology nuances, teens are the natural next frontier for wearables. I believe wearables will more effectively target teens to work out the kinks and uncover the real possibilities before succeeding mainstream with adults and with enterprises that can leverage the data these devices generate.

Follow the boyband

Of course, it’s a delicate balance. The successful teen wearable will need to demonstrate value to parents and to their children. But mostly to their children.

Consider a "drama tracker," that could mine social analytics and unstructured data along with academic performance data and health data to show how social interactions – including online interactions -- are really affecting teen health. The drama tracker could analyze data from events like doctor visits, have sensors that read calories burned through various online and offline activities, monitor sleep patterns, and then compare that data to those of "healthy" children, as well as a child’s friends and family.

A “friend optimizer” wearable could even tell you, based on every day activities and the data from the drama tracker, who your child should be hanging out with and why.

Okay, so you’d never get a teenager to wear such a device, unless it was an ankle bracelet.

OR maybe, unless it tapped into the boyband or anti-bullying market, both pretty hot, using a teen heartthrob spokesperson like Harry Styles from One Direction.

I can see Harry, donning the “No Bull” anti-bully wearable bracelet now, fist held high, wrist forward: “Let me take your pulse,” and then the tagline: “Say no to bullying and yes to Harry.”

Clearly I do this for a living.

Of course, in writing this, I had to search a few things to see if I’m alone in connecting teen drama, social, mobile, and wearable devices. Turns out I’m not.

MightyCast is a Montreal start-up developing custom wristbands that connects tweens and teens with social with gaming activities. They are customizable and connect all the right entertainment points for teens.

Now all they need is a boyband.

And while this post may be a mashup of B2C, B2B, tech, and teen culture thoughts, I feel pretty confident in proposing that the teen market is the next great frontier for wearable devices – and that those involved would do well to solve the privacy problem and follow the drama to find the cash.