Moms and Media · May 8, 2012

Moms and Media 2012: The Connected Mom

By Edison Research

With Mother’s Day upon us, we are all about mom. Beautiful, strong, selfless and nurturing are all ways we can describe her. However, in 2012, let’s add a few more words to that description list: connected, social and mobile. These three words represent a modern mom, based on the newly released Moms and Media 2012 report from Edison Research and Arbitron.

The report, which is drawn from the 20th Edison Research/Arbitron Internet and Multimedia Research series, showcases how moms are using technology and consuming various forms of media. The data shows us that moms have some strong characteristics and tendencies that continue to take shape as they become more invested with smartphones, social networking and just getting online in general.

In the Moms and Media 2012 report, we see that over a decade, moms’ time with the Internet has soared and she is logging well over 2.5 hours per day online. By comparison, in 2002 she clocked in only 53 minutes. Technology allows Mom to use the Internet for almost everything: shopping, banking, social networking and looking up information not only for her but for the family.

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Moms confirm what we assume from their heavy usage: that the Internet is essential to their lives. 58% of moms in this year’s study said the Internet is “most essential,” which is a giant increase from where it was in 2002, a mere 17%.

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While online, moms are using social media–specifically Facebook. In 2012, 72% of moms have a profile page on Facebook, which is up from the 62% in last year’s study. Moms are still discovering Facebook, so this number will likely continue to grow.

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Not only are moms registered with social media sites like Facebook, they are using them often. Our research shows that 46% of social networking moms use those sites several times per day. This trend has been consistently on the rise, especially with the increased popularity of smartphones among this target group.

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Moms continue to flock to the smartphone, outpacing Americans 12+ in ownership. More than three in five moms(61%) own a smartphone, compared to 44% of total Americans 12+. Smartphones are becoming a necessity for moms and they continue to be a driving force in the sales boom for these mobile devices.

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The complete presentation slides for Moms and Media 2012 can be viewed below, or Download Moms and Media 2012 from Edison Research here.

Moms and Media 2012

View more presentations from Edison Research

How the study was conducted

A total of 2,020 persons were interviewed to investigate Americans’ use of digital platforms and new media. From January 20 to February 19, 2012, telephone interviews were conducted with respondents age 12 and older chosen at random from a national sample of Arbitron’s Fall 2011 survey diarykeepers and through random digit dialing (RDD) sampling in geographic areas where Arbitron diarykeepers were not available for the survey. Diarykeepers represent 45% of the completed interviews and RDD sampled respondents represent 55% of the completed interviews. The study includes a total of 500 cell phone interviews.

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