Synovate shows young Asians are driven by media and music

Covering 12 markets and 13,256 youths across the region, including Japan and Vietnam for the first time, the study showed listening to music is very important to the lives of two thirds of young Asians and 34 per cent said that they had spent more time listening to music in the last year.

Miranda Cheung, Synovate’s managing director in Singapore, said: “Media across different platforms have certainly taken hold of youth across Asia in a significant way and this influence continues to grow. In fact, twenty-five per cent admitted that they just couldn’t live without the internet while 23 per cent said that they plan to watch more TV."

For online habits, 60 per cent of Singaporean youth are into blogging (the highest in the region together with Vietnam). Forty-eight per cent spend a portion of their time reading blogs without making any comments while around 34 per cent both read and make comments on blogs. Thirty-five per cent of Singaporean youngsters create and update their blogs regularly (the highest in the region together with Hong Kong).

Close to half (44 per cent) of young Singaporeans read other people’s social network profile pages while 39 per cent update their own profile pages. Fifty-one percent take the initiative to read other people’s social network profile pages as well as update their own.

The survey also explored the engagement levels of 8 to 24-year olds on the different types of activities and time spent on media. Thirty-five per cent had used the internet more than a year ago, while close to a quarter (23 per cent) had spent more time 
watching TV.

Newspaper and magazine reading remained unchanged with 64 per cent of respondents spending roughly the same amount of time on both media. More than a quarter (29 per cent) of young Asians set-aside time and plan their schedules around their favourite TV programmes, hoping to catch every episode.

The biggest media junkies are in Korea (13.7 hours a day), Hong Kong (12.7 hours) and Singapore (12.6 hours). This covers time spent on the internet, watching TV or DVD/VCD/videos, reading newspapers or magazines and listening to the radio.

"Asia's young people have certainly embraced multi-tasking. Kids are watching the TV, but also talking on the phone. They are on the internet with the radio on in the background. Or they may be sending email, texting on their mobile phone and playing an online game all at the same time,” said Cheung.