How are today’s teenagers different from previous generations? Daniel Cox, a senior fellow at AEI and director of their Survey Center on American Life, dug into some new data to find out. The American Teenagers Survey project raises the specter of today’s young people eschewing traditional teen experiences—like eating regular family meals, reading for pleasure, and spending time with friends—in favor of whiling away hours a day on social media, playing video games, and trying to figure out the future.
Survey responses come from NORC at the University of Chicago’s AmeriSpeak, a probability-based panel designed to be representative of the U.S. household population, including all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Teenagers (13–17) were recruited to AmeriSpeak via parents/guardians who were already part of the panel. Cox’s sample consisted of 782 teens who completed the entire survey—self-administered online—in January and February of 2026. Three stages of weighting were conducted to align the final survey sample to specific population benchmarks drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey as of March 2025.
Let’s start with a few data points on those traditional teen experiences. Only 37 percent of survey respondents said they share meals as a family every day, and 33 percent indicated this occurs no more than once a week. The older the teens, the lower the percentages. About one in three said they read a book for fun within the last week, roughly the same proportion who said they seldom or never do. Fifteen percent reported having a part-time job. Travel sports and music declined among older teens. And other traditional routines were also uneven, with one in four teens helping with household chores, and one in five seldom or never attending religious services.
How do today’s teens fill their time? Overall, 35 percent of respondents said they spent at least four hours a day on social media or playing video games. Short-form video platforms like YouTube and TikTok were the most-visited sites, and about 44 percent of teens spent at least an hour gaming every day. Thirty-five percent of teens said they seldom or never used AI chatbots; about one in five (21 percent) reported “irregular use,” a category that ranged from once or twice a month to a few times a year. There is, unfortunately, no differentiation as to whether any of this online time or device usage is required (schoolwork, college applications, job requirements, etc.) or voluntary.
Various aspects of family structure play strong roles in teens’ daily lives. Respondents with college-educated parents were more likely to participate in numerous extracurricular activities, including sports and school-sponsored clubs, than those whose parents did not have a four-year college degree. Just 37 percent of teenagers with divorced parents reported feeling very or completely satisfied with their lives, as compared with 55 percent of teens whose parents were married. Respondents with married parents also reported higher evaluations of their personal health and more satisfaction with their familial relationships than their peers with divorced parents.
One particularly bright spot concerns friendships. Sixty percent of teenagers reported they had four or more close friends, and another 34 percent said they had between one and three close friends. Only 2 percent of respondents said they had no close friends. And despite the long hours spent online, a majority of those with friends (55 percent) said they spent time with them—in person and outside school hours—at least once a week.
When it comes to their post-graduation options, approximately 48 percent of respondents planned on going to a four-year college after high school. Seventeen percent planned on enrolling in a two-year college or a vocational program, 10 percent were planning on a full-time job out of high school, and 3 percent planned on military enlistment. Eighteen percent of teens reported being uncertain about what they will do after high school graduation. Sixty percent of girls were planning on a four-year college, compared to 36 percent of boys. More boys than girls were planning for vocational school or getting a full-time job. More boys than girls also said they were unsure about their post-graduation plans.
What does the long-term future hold for today’s teens? In a word: traditional. Large majorities of respondents said they were very or extremely likely to find rewarding and good-paying jobs, to own their own home at some point in the future, and to marry someone “they really like.” Nearly 43 percent of teens said they are very or extremely likely to have children in the future, 30 percent said they are somewhat likely to have kids, and the rest said they are unlikely to or not interested at all in starting a family. Respondents from college-educated households were far more optimistic about their own college plans, ability to earn a living, and achieving the American dream of home and family than their peers whose parents did not have college degrees.
There’s lots more to unpack in these survey results, but the gist seems clear enough: Today’s teens may lead different, more-plugged-in lives from those of previous generations, but they still generally aspire toward traditional adult lives. Cox focuses heavily on reported technology use among teens in his conclusion, especially overuse among certain groups, noting that “it is their technology use that makes their formative experiences so distinctive” from their predecessors. But even in our rightful concern about the prominence of influencers both real and artificial in young Americans’ lives, we shouldn’t forget that some of those predecessors are their own parents and grandparents. Family ties and familial examples still serve to shape the lives and futures of young Americans today. The stronger and more connected our teenagers are to positive role models, mentors, and success stories, the better they can plan for—and reach—their own future goals.
SOURCE: Daniel A. Cox, “A Digital Divide in American Adolescence: Gender, Class, and the New Teenage Experience,” American Enterprise Institute (July 2026).
