NEW YORK: Most teenagers and young adults in the US prefer surfing the Internet or watching television over reading for recreation, the US-based Centre for Media Research quoted from an eMarketer report recently.
The report stated that Harris Interactive and Teenage Research Unlimited surveyed 2,618 people in the age group of 13 to 24 in June, and found that respondents spend twice as much time per week watching TV as reading books or magazines for pleasure.

The survey said that the main reason cited among respondents for spending so much time online was the quality of "control" the Internet affords users. Users can personalize and manage their experience online more so than with any other form of media.
As for the type of website most in demand, teens between the ages of 12 and 17 spend an average of 26.6 minutes each day with instant messaging (IM) applications, 24.4 minutes per day with game sites and a whopping 41.5 minutes per day on sites with some sort of corporate presence, comScore Media Metrix determined at the end of 2002.
eMarketer stated that by the end of 2003, roughly 17 per cent of US Internet users will be in nine to 17 age group and about 29 per cent in the 18 and 34 age group.