What are teenagers looking at online?

May 4, 2006 10:59 AM

What websites are all the cool kids looking at these days?

I'm trying to put together a list of the most popular websites targeted at teenagers (for my work). I know the no-brainers like MySpace, but I'm particularly interested in portal/content sites, like how iVillage is for women, or something like MSN's portal page but more youth-oriented. What sites are all the rage among teenagers at the moment?

posted by EnormousTalkingOnion to computers & internet (29 comments total)

Facebook.com
posted by nitsuj at 11:01 AM on May 4, 2006

Ebaum's World
posted by knave at 11:06 AM on May 4, 2006

I think you need to take into account that teenagers don't really read that much, so content-oriented sites like Metafilter, even geared towards more relevant topics, aren't all that popular. Bite-sized social networking sites like Facebook and Myspace are much more popular - I'm in college, and the only thing anyone ever does on their laptops in class is AIM, email and facebook.
posted by borkingchikapa at 11:07 AM on May 4, 2006

On preview, stuff like Ebaum's World too.
posted by borkingchikapa at 11:07 AM on May 4, 2006

this is going to depend HEAVILY on what kind of teenagers you're looking at. the above mentioned facebook is excellent, but that's a very specific set of teens. there are also a very specific set of teens that frequent the somethingawful.com forums. and cruel.com. and stileproject.com and break.com, but none of them shows an overwhelming majority of teens of all types. if there is a site that does that besides myspace, I don't know what it is.
posted by shmegegge at 11:09 AM on May 4, 2006

oh, and of COURSE the worldofwarcraft forums. and livejournal.
posted by shmegegge at 11:10 AM on May 4, 2006

There's neopets.com that's probably geared towards the tweens and extremely young teens. I'm not exactly sure how "cool" it is, though.
posted by moonshine at 11:11 AM on May 4, 2006

i have the weird feeling that the cool kids aren't looking at websites ... just a hunch ... 2 or 3 years ago, i wouldn't have said this
posted by pyramid termite at 11:16 AM on May 4, 2006

There are a lot of stupid videos of stupid teenagers doing stupid things on youtube.
posted by interrobang at 11:18 AM on May 4, 2006

Oh No They Didn't.

[via my teenage sister]
posted by patr1ck at 11:20 AM on May 4, 2006

Fark. I know it is popular with the 16yo set for "naked drunk female driver" stories and the like. Though mostly that set just reads the linked stories and doesn't post or read comments. (except for looking at Photoshop threads).

The comment posters seem to be older to much much older.
posted by MonkeySaltedNuts at 11:26 AM on May 4, 2006

the students in my classes are usually playing flash games, looking at youtube, Some look at digg.com, others check their email, or websites that have to do with what they are interested in (ie disc golf). We have an internet filter so my answers my be off.
posted by nimsey lou at 11:35 AM on May 4, 2006

I've been reading Metafilter since I was about 14 or 15 years old (I'm now 21), but I'm not sure if it's considered "cool" these days for the younger crowds.

That said, my addition to the list would probably be Forumopolis.com.
posted by itchie at 11:44 AM on May 4, 2006

Fark

Digg

College Humor
posted by i_am_a_Jedi at 11:47 AM on May 4, 2006

BEBO
every kid in Ireland going nuts on this
posted by patphelan at 11:57 AM on May 4, 2006

YouTube and any other video delivery website.
posted by Number27 at 12:03 PM on May 4, 2006

YTMND.

And, at least at my public library branch, blackplanet.com, which seems to be fairly comparable to MySpace, except targeted at a smaller segment of the population.
posted by box at 12:17 PM on May 4, 2006

pinkisthenewblog.com (for celebrity gossip)
posted by elvissa at 1:24 PM on May 4, 2006

http://www.fark.com
http://www.b0g.org
http://www.entensity.net
http://www.somethingawful.com
http://www.collegehumor.com
http://www.thesmokinggun.com
http://video.google.com
http://www.ebaumsworld.com
http://www.homestarrunner.com
posted by fvox13 at 1:42 PM on May 4, 2006

Kontraband
posted by djgh at 1:48 PM on May 4, 2006

imdb
posted by martinX's bellbottoms at 2:01 PM on May 4, 2006

ESPN.com.
posted by ludwig_van at 2:21 PM on May 4, 2006

I definitely have to agree with shmegegge that this question depends very, very heavily on the population of teenager's you're looking at.

Websites like Facebook, MySpace, and LiveJournal have relatively broad followings among all "types" of teenagers (and also among people who aren't teenagers), and reference websites like imdb are used by pretty much everyone, teen and adult alike - but otherwise things are pretty varied.

There are lots of teenagers who don't use the internet for much more than social networking and flash videos, but there are also many who read Metafilter, read news websites and blogs, and obsessively research things on Wikipedia for fun (that's certainly what I used the internet for all through highschool).

I think that the kids who read websites "targeted at teenagers" are probably the same ones who read Seventeen and Maxim on paper - in other words, not the same kids who are reading Harper's and the New Yorker, of whom there is a smaller, but certainly a significant number. And you can bet that those kids aren't big fans of collegehumor.com.

I'm tired and I feel like what I just wrote is probably a little bit incoherent, but you probably get the idea.
posted by bubukaba at 3:26 PM on May 4, 2006

http://forums.somethingawful.com
posted by holloway at 3:29 PM on May 4, 2006

www.addictinggames.com
And various other flash sites, especially including (I'm mighty surprised it hasn't been mentioned previously, but hey, being 13 gives me a jump on your granthers): Newgrounds.com

Being an internet nerd also kinda means I'm not one of "the cool kids". I rarely get to talk about internet related stuff, but when I do it usually involves fads like homestarrunner or myspace or ebaumsworld. Most of the cool kids don't stay one place for long, however.
posted by Suparnova at 3:55 PM on May 4, 2006

Hey guys, thanks for the suggestions so far. I guess I should have clarified a little more. I'm pretty familiar with the big meme sites, video sites, social networking sites, I'm looking more for a more content-driven site, whereas most of the biggies are very user-driven. Hence the iVillage example - I'm trying to find sites that have editorial oversight, where the content isn't user-contributed, so more like online magazines (but not the online versions of print magazines), that are for a teenage audience. Does that make sense?
posted by EnormousTalkingOnion at 4:39 PM on May 4, 2006

ETO: As far as online magazines go, teens tend to make their own. There are thousands of communities on LiveJournal that are magazine-like (for example, the earlier-mentioned ONTD), and just as much that are self-hosted and self-managed.

Many teens nowadays (at least in 2003ish, I don't know if there's been a drastic change) create their own websites - personal, fansites, portfolios, etc - and some of them are very content-driven. You might want to check out Glitter and follow the links.
posted by divabat at 5:36 PM on May 4, 2006

The quizes and things (I don't remember if they had articles) at The Spark used to be very popular, though it doesn't seem to exist anymore. The only online magazine I can think of that any people I knew in high school read is Pitchfork, which isn't exactly pitched to teenagers in particular.

The teenagers who don't focus exclusively on flash games, social networking, and AIM (and the ones who don't usually aren't the cool kids) read the same content-driven sites that adults do according to what they're interested in.
posted by bubukaba at 6:47 PM on May 4, 2006

Chatropolis was big when I was in junior high...but that was about eight years ago.
posted by limeonaire at 8:19 PM on May 4, 2006