The Internet's novelty is wearing thin amongst Aussies teenagers, with many considering it a mere extension of the high-school curriculum and therefore a duty rather than a source of entertainment to indulge in.
Queensland University of Technology (QUT) conducted a survey of 200 15-17 year olds and found that the majority use the Net for not much more than an hour a day, driven by educational obligations.
"The novelty of the Internet isn't as great as we'd like to think it is [amongst teenagers]," QUT's media studies associate lecturer Jason Sternberg told ZDNet.
Sternberg believes that because computers are increasingly becoming part of the youth population's everyday life, particularly in the classroom, the fun of surfing is just about defunct.
Furthermore, parents are increasingly buying PCs with education in the back of their minds.
Therefore, teenagers consistently caught surfing fairly innocuous mainstream Web sites inspire the misconception today that teenagers are nothing more than screen junkies or couch potatoes, Sternberg said.
This will lead to a stream of stereotypical parental comments about going outside and not sitting in front of a computer screen all day long, taking the freedom and the fun out of surfing.
Sternberg also believes that teenagers' lack of loyalty to the Web has a lot to do with where computers are situated in the home.
The PC is price restrictive enough to mean that the majority of families have just one.
Parental fears of cyber-stalking and kids surfing "inappropriate" sites are such that the computer is usually located where parents are able to check on their kids' surfing habits.
This 'looking-over-the-shoulder' syndrome also takes the fizz out of the bang for teenagers accessing the Internet.
"It isn't really condusive to racy e-mail chats with friends," Sternberg said.
Sternberg said that the small number of respondents to the survey that had computers in their bedrooms, used them more than those teenagers who used a centrally-located home computer.
Sternberg said that the study, completed by himself, Christina George and Joshua Green, "challenges the stereotypes of young people and their use of new media".
