BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE : MAY 29, 2000 ISSUE
PEOPLE Microsoft Puts Teens under the Microscope The company conducted an "anthropological" inquiry into the curious computing habits of the Net Generation. They found that teens hate downtime, frantically multitask, and love to instant-message Inside a three-story, brown stucco house in a trendy suburb of Seattle, Microsoft executives conducted an unusual experiment last winter -- analyzing every waking moment of 10 college students for two weeks. An online version of MTV's Real World? Not quite. The software giant wanted to learn how teenagers use technology, so it set up what it calls a "Net-Gen Lab" to study the kids directly. Eager to develop products for this new generation -- the first to grow up with computers -- the company invited 10 students from Oberlin College in Ohio to live in the house and work on two projects. The students, who didn't know each other and weren't technology or business majors, created a Web site and a Web magazine, while observers -- known as "the anthropologists" -- watched their every move. They saw kids get impatient with technology that didn't work instantly -- for instance, abandoning search engines that didn't give them what they wanted immediately. That's different from adult behavior: The grown-ups often stick with the same engine once they've tried it. In one instance, students looking for movie listings got so frustrated with their online search that they gave up on the computer entirely, turning to the newspaper. "They have zero tolerance for downtime," said Elizabeth King, a general manager at Microsoft involved with the lab. "They expect computers to work like a light switch." PRIVACY PREMIUM. Microsoft wouldn't make any of the students available for interviews. The company said it wanted to protect their privacy. But Microsoft execs discussed the experiment with Business Week Online. Teens put a premium on their personal privacy and ignored all the ads on the Web, King said. "They regarded ads as intrusive and misleading," scrolling past them or making jokes about them. "They were very reluctant to sign up for anything," fearing their privacy would be eroded, she said. These kids would multitask to the max -- having an instant-messaging conversation while doing research on a Web site while playing a computer game and talking to someone else in the room about work, said Tammy Morrison, a manager in Microsoft's business-productivity group. "Not only did they embrace the chaos, they require it and think of it as energy," she said. INSTANT GRATIFICATION. Outside of the lab, Morrison said, she once watched two teens say they wanted to discuss a certain topic, then sit down next to each other and start typing instant messages to one another on their computers. She later discovered that the teens thought they could have a more thoughtful discussion through writing. They liked being able to discuss the topic with more than one person simultaneously and having a written record of their conversation. What all this means for Microsoft products is still unclear, but everyone seemed to enjoy the cultural exchange, Microsoft says, and the company is already considering inviting another group of college kids to their brown stucco house in the near future. By Rochelle Sharp in Boston _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ BACK TO TOP					RELATED ITEMS Teen Internet Moguls RESUME: Michael Furdyk RESUME: Cameron Johnson RESUME: Brad Ogden RESUME: Angelo Sotira RESUME: Paul Dinin RESUME: Rishi Bhat ONLINE ORIGINAL: Microsoft Puts Teens under the Microscope ONLINE ORIGINAL: Girl Geeks Start to Breach the Wired World ONLINE ORIGINAL: From High-Tech Hobby to Big Bucks ONLINE ORIGINAL: Changing the Image of the Inventor ONLINE ORIGINAL: The Legal Pitfalls of Doing Business with Teens INTERACT E-Mail to Business Week Online

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