Reading in free fall among 16-19 year-olds, skyrocketing screen time, information practices disrupted by TikTok: the youth trends in 2024 outline a landscape where digital usage redefines the daily lives of adolescents and young adults. What gaps are measured between age groups, between media, between declared practices and actual behaviors?
Screen time vs reading time: the quantified gaps among young people
The study by the National Book Centre (CNL) conducted with Ipsos in 2024 presents a clear finding: young people spend ten times more time on screens daily than reading. This ratio, measured in the 7-19 age group, varies by age, but the trend remains consistent.
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| Indicator | 7-15 years | 16-19 years |
|---|---|---|
| Leisure reading | Majority of readers | One in three does not read at all |
| Preferred media | Comics, paper mangas | Digital books on smartphone |
| Screen time vs reading | High ratio | Even more pronounced ratio |
| School/professional reading | Stable | Declining (about two-thirds) |
The disengagement intensifies after age 15. Among 16-19 year-olds, one in three young people no longer reads outside of school obligations. Nearly half of the young respondents have read a digital book, primarily on smartphones, confirming the shift towards short and mobile formats.
For news on Newsyoung, adolescents also prefer the same devices as for digital reading: the smartphone remains the dominant entry point, far ahead of computers or tablets.
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Social media and youth information: TikTok as the dominant medium
The M6 Publicité/Gulli study on kids’ trends in 2024 confirms that digital usage is increasingly prominent in the lives of younger individuals, with a direct impact on their identity formation. Short content platforms (with TikTok leading) are no longer just for entertainment.
For teenagers, TikTok now serves as a channel for accessing news. Political, social, or environmental topics circulate there in videos of less than a minute, often without editorial verification. This shift alters young people’s relationship with information and raises questions about digital media education.
- Social media is becoming the primary source of information for a growing share of teenagers, ahead of television and print media.
- Algorithmic content creates thematic bubbles: a young person interested in sports will hardly see any political news in their feed.
- Digital media education remains poorly integrated into school curricula, despite repeated recommendations from institutions.
In contrast, television retains a place among children aged 4 to 14. Youth channels like Gulli maintain a stable audience on live and replay, creating a clear divide between children’s practices and those of teenagers.
Youth mental health and digital exposure: an increasingly documented link
Competitors focus on media usage or consumption. However, an angle absent from their content directly concerns young people in 2024: the rise of mental health difficulties related to social media.
Recent awareness campaigns highlight that more and more young people report feeling stress, sadness, or a sense of exclusion related to their use of platforms. This phenomenon particularly affects teenagers aged 13 to 17.
The issue goes beyond mere screen time. Constant social comparison, aesthetic pressure from filters, cyberbullying, and attention fragmentation are among the identified mechanisms. The Enabee survey by Public Health France on children’s well-being helps document these dynamics on a national scale.
Health prevention and vaccination: concrete developments for adolescents
The 2025 vaccination schedule from the Ministry of Health introduces a systematic recommendation for vaccination against meningococci ACWY for all adolescents aged 11 to 14, with catch-up for those aged 15-24. Vaccination against human papillomavirus (HPV) infections is expanded to all young men and women up to 26 years old.
These changes directly impact prevention practices among young people and are rarely covered in “youth trends” content, which focuses on digital usage.
Youth employment in 2024: the contradictory signals of the market
The report from the International Labour Organization (ILO) on global youth employment trends in 2024 points to contrasting developments. While the youth unemployment rate is declining in some regions, the precariousness of first jobs remains a strong marker of this generation.
Professional integration pathways are diversifying. Civic service, the validation of acquired experience (VAE, currently being reformed), and regional support schemes are levers mobilized by public authorities. The question of the alignment between training and the labor market remains open, particularly in digital sectors where demand evolves faster than curricula.
- Work-study programs continue to progress as a pathway to employment for those aged 18-25.
- Digital jobs are attractive, but certification training struggles to keep pace with needs.
- Integration schemes (civic service, local missions) remain under-resourced compared to demand in certain areas.
The news affecting young people in 2024 is not limited to social media or consumption habits. Health prevention, access to employment, relationship with information: the issues intersect and paint a more complex generational portrait than mere statistics of digital usage.