In the 90’s shopping malls and teens had a love affair, it was the default location where you could find all teenagers. After their school work, they usually hung out at the mall either shopping or playing games.
Now, teens have an alternative destination where they hang out. Gradually the love affair between teens and malls has gone sour. Several malls across the country are closing down because their number one customers no longer patronize them. There are now cheaper alternatives for kids. They prefer to buy their items online instead of malls. When these kids are asked why they no longer do their shopping in the malls they reply that online stores are more comfy and affordable and they get to do everything from the comfort of their homes.
Teens now prefer to hang out in restaurants. Restaurants have gradually displaced malls as the general hang out place for teens, they now prefer dining out than shopping. This is the reason for the constantly increasing number of restaurants, as these kids are more interested in trying out new places instead of shopping for brand names in malls.
Teens also hang out when they go for extracurricular activities like clubs, sports, or religious activities. Most times they spend their time with a close friends at his/her house.
After the school activities where they spend 80% of their time, kids generally spend most of their time online interacting with their friends on social media. These days kids also prefer to hang out at home with their gadgets. Massive development in technology has made it hard for malls to strive because teens prefer to shop online and they don’t get to spend time in malls. So, we can say today’s kids are a homebody because they are always online instead of at the mall. After all, you do not have to face a security guard if you are just hang out online on social media platforms.
We can say that today, teens prefer to hang out with friends in online settings, they are choked up with a lot of school work, extracurricular activities, and sometimes, work. They spend 55% of their time online chatting and hanging out with friends online on a regular basis.
As malls are closing, online platforms are available to keep teens engaged. Practically everything done at the mall can be achieved online, from shopping for clothes, food, personal items, playing games and booking for appointments in beauty salons. Frequent contact between teens and their friends are facilitated by mobile devices and social media. They have more than one way to hang out with friends. This changes how they connect with friends. Most of the hang out is done virtually instead of physically like meeting in a mall.
86% of teens have access to smartphones, this means they spend a lot of time on their gadgets. This is to say that teens now prefer spending more time online with their friends than going to the mall.
