Why Today's Teens Shun Old School TV for Video on Smartphones

As the old saying goes, the best way to make a 27-year-old reporter feel like an old man is to send him to VidCon.

And what did this old man learn on the first day of the massive online video convention? That teenagers don’t give a damn about traditional TV.

Instead, digital video is now the entertainment choice for Generation Z. It’s the reason thousands of kids from around the world descended upon the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California, on Wednesday — for a chance to meet their favorite YouTube creators.

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Roasting under the sunlight on a cloudless 86-degree day, young girls shook with anticipation as they patiently waited one-by-one to say “hi” to their heroes.

“I met Josh here today and I was so nervous I could barely say something to him,” Ashley, a high school student from Victorville, California, said.

That would be Josh of “Exploring With Josh” fame — a YouTube creator making adventure videos on a range of topics, from Japanese hidden graveyards to the catacombs underneath Paris. His channel has more than two million subscribers.

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Ashley’s friend Maddie, when asked if she still enjoys watching shows on TV, quickly responded: “It doesn’t interest me at all.”

This was the standard answer from the dozens of attendees I talked to. Lauren, a 16-year-old from Virginia, told TheWrap succinctly “no one watches TV anymore.”

And the swarm of bodies these online celebs attracted certainly backed up her claim.

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Jimmy Here, a Vine star famous for wearing a Spider-Man costume and yelling at the top of his lungs, took selfies with several adoring fans. Decked out in his full Peter Parker getup, Here told TheWrap that he was excited to meet his followers and was looking to “meet people a little bit bigger than me and potentially collaborating.”

It quickly became evident the eighth-annual VidCon was tailor-made for a young audience — the only people I saw or talked to older than 30 were chaperoning a younger family member. With their mom flanked to the right, two high school students from Utah rattled off a laundry list of their top teeny-bopper creators, including Zach Clayton, David Dobrick, and Andrea Russett — the trio combine for more than eight million YouTube followers.

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When pressed about why online video is more palatable to a young audience, Jodie, one of the two kids from Utah, said it’s all about options. “You can find anything you like on YouTube, Vimeo, or Twitter, and you feel connected to [the creators] because they care about the same stuff you do.” She then said she’s been inspired to start her own vlog.

At the same time, the mutual admiration between creator and fans ran both ways at VidCon. Stondie, a 23-year-old YouTuber from North Carolina, said he flew out to meet both fans and other video-makers. He’s also looking to pull in new viewers for his “funny rap” videos.

“I only have 35,000 followers, and I’m shooting for 100,000,” Stondie said. He definitely came to the right place to make it happen.

'Minority Report' and 18 More Movies That Accurately Predicted Future Tech (Photos)

Steven Spielberg's tech-heavy "Minority Report," starring Tom Cruise, is now 15 years old. Considered one of the most prescient sci-fi movies to grace the big screen, it predicted multiple future innovations, including facial recognition, personalize advertising and predictive crime fighting. In honor of the movie's anniversary, click through here to revisit 18 more movies that accurately peered into the future of technology:
20th Century Fox
We're so used to touch screens at this point -- we use them every day on our smart phones, and even at McDonald's -- that it's easy to forget that Tom Cruise used the technology in "Minority Report."
20th Century Fox
Long before Siri, there was HAL. The ominous yet soft-spoken computer system was the antagonist in 1968's "2001: A Space Odyssey." Stanley Kubrick's sinister talking computer ended up turning on its crew in a Siri user's worst nightmare.
MGM
Tech giant Elon Musk is at the helm of SpaceX, which will send two tourists to space in 2018. But "2001: A Space Odyssey" imagined commercial space travel decades ago.
MGM
Elon Musk, Google and Uber have been duking it out to bring self-driving cars to the masses, but Arnold Schwarzenegger might have jumpstarted the competition when he took a robot-controlled ride in 1990's "Total Recall."
TriStar Pictures
"The Terminator" predicted military drones in 1984 -- long before they were introduced to police forces and militaries.
Orion Pictures
Virtual reality is taking over the tech scene. You can play games in VR, watch movies and experience Coachella all from the comfort of your living room. But Hollywood predicted we'd have VR more than 20 years ago in 1992's "Lawnmower Man."
New Line Cinema
The 1982 cult classic "Blade Runner," starring Harrison Ford, predicted digital billboards, which you can see now all over the country, from Times Square in New York to the Vegas strip.
Warner Bros.
Remember when the TSA rolled out invasive body scanners and a lot of people freaked out? "Airplane II: The Sequel" imagined airport scanners that revealed a person's naked body to agents.
Paramount Pictures
Just like other industries, robots are taking over jobs in the military, too. There are even listicles outlining the "coolest" military robots. "Short Circuit" predicted this technology with the prototype robot Number 5.
Tristar pictures
Woody Allen's "Sleeper" had robots assisting surgeons by offering advice during surgery. Today, doctors use robotics to add precision to procedures.
United Artists
The beloved 1960s cartoon "The Jetsons" -- which was made into a movie in 1990 -- predicted the use of robots to clean homes. They had a robotic vacuum and a robotic maid. Can you say Roomba?
ABC
In vitro fertilization and at-home genetic testing are common place these days. "Gattaca," with Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke, predicted this tech in 1997.
Columbia Pictures
3D printing is used today in industries ranging from aerospace to medical. In "Weird Science," the boys 3D printed an actual girl.

Also Read: From ‘E.T.’ to ‘Explorers': When Kids Ruled the Big Screen (Photos)
Universal Pictures
We know how dangerous cyber warfare is, and countless companies have been hacked recently. 1983's "WarGames" with Matthew Broderick is all about a kid who walks the line between gaming and reality.
MGM
FaceTime, and Skype before it, are commonplace today. But it was cool new technology in 1989's "Back to the Future Part II."
Universal Pictures
There are a ton of different options out there for smart watches. This was predicted in 1990's "Dick Tracy."
Touchstone Pictures
It's so easy to order Domino's online -- you can even watch how far along in the process your pizza is. In 1995's "The Net" with Sandra Bullock, they showed ordering pizza online for the first time.
Columbia Pictures
Tinder, Bumble and OKCupid are only a few of the many, many online dating options out there. But Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks were on the forefront of the online dating trend in "You've Got Mail."
Warner Bros.
VR porn is growing in popularity. Or as it's called in 1993's "Demolition Man" -- "digitized transference of sexual energies."
Warner Bros.
The 1929 movie "Woman in the Moon" predicted space travel. Obviously, we hit that milestone decades ago. And hey, they even got the shuttle shape right!

Also Read: ‘Top Gun': 30 Things You Didn’t Know About the Tom Cruise Classic (Photos)
Fritz Lang Film

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From robotic vacuums to smart watches, Hollywood got these tech trends right

Steven Spielberg's tech-heavy "Minority Report," starring Tom Cruise, is now 15 years old. Considered one of the most prescient sci-fi movies to grace the big screen, it predicted multiple future innovations, including facial recognition, personalize advertising and predictive crime fighting. In honor of the movie's anniversary, click through here to revisit 18 more movies that accurately peered into the future of technology:

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'Minority Report' and 18 More Movies That Accurately Predicted Future Tech (Photos)

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