A new study from UCLA’s Center for Scholars and Storytellers is bucking the assumption that teenagers and young adults don’t watch TV and movies. The 2025 report released Wednesday found that 57% of those surveyed said they watching traditional media more than older generations think they do.
The sample for the study was composed of 1,500 U.S. participants ranging from 10 to 24 years old. There were 100 respondents from each age cohort. The data collection platform Qualtrics polled the data from Aug. 13 to 25.
According to the study, 53% of young viewers also said they discuss TV shows and movies with their friends compared to the 18.6% who said they discussed social media with friends. Furthering the trend that TV and movies are a popular group activity among young audiences, participants said that when watching something with friends they were twice as likely to choose a movie (31.2%) rather than social media (15.6%).
Though movies and TV may be more popular among younger audiences than people may expect, the way adolescents are consuming this media has changed. Over three-fourths (78.4%) of participants said they sometimes watch TV and movies on social media platforms like YouTube or TikTok, and nearly half said they mostly watch TV and movies on a personal device like a phone or computer rather than a TV. Additionally, nearly 71% percent of Gen Z said they found TV and movie recommendations through short-form social media content, according to research from Quickplay.
As for what kinds of shows and movies are resonating with Gen Z and Gen Alpha, authenticity is key. Relatable stories ranked as the top quality adolescents were looking for, outranking stories that dealt in fantasy, real-world issues or aspirational stories about rich or famous people. More than half of participants (59.7%) said they wanted more content about friendships. As for romantic relationships, sex is still out. Respondents said they want to see more stories focused on the connection and friendship between a couple (60.9%) rather than stories that focus on sex.
Animation is also appealing more to younger fans. When asked if they preferred animated or live content, the split was roughly down the middle (48.5% vs. 51.5%). That’s a 6.5% increase in interest around animation compared to last year.
