Teens spend 12% less time looking at the face of the person they are speaking to than adults

If you have teenagers at home, it's likely you often feel like you're speaking to a brick wall. Now, a study has confirmed that teenagers really do ignore you, spending less time looking at your face when you're speaking to them than another adult would. A team led by the University of Kent recorded three groups of volunteers, aged 10-19, 20-40 and 60-80 in real-world social interaction situations. The situations involved them having a face-to-face conversation and navigating an environment, with eye-tracking glasses used to monitor their interactions. The findings revealed that adolescents pay less attention to social cues in real-world interactions than adults.