‘iPhones represent social status for teens’

Research from Piper Jaffray suggests gadgets and food, rather than clothes, are the main areas where teens spend money, reports CNET.com.

Have you noticed that your local teens have been looking especially shabby of late? Are they sporting T-shirts that don’t even appear to have come from Abercrombie, American Eagle, or any brand that belches a logo as loudly as it can?

Apparently, the young rulers of tomorrow are eschewing mere clothing for some of the finer things in life. According to the International Business Times, teens are examining their wallets and deciding that, oh, clothes are so yesteryear. They don’t give them the status and power they used to.

Instead, teens are spending more money on food and gadgets.

The IBT cites research from Piper Jaffray, and quotes an associate professor in Business Enterprise at Fordham University, Marcia Flicker.

The suggestion is that those gaudy teen clothing brands that you see peppering malls are all suffering from a lack of financial seasoning from their former regulars.

Fashion, it seems, is how teens used to show off their social wherewithal. Now they spend a fulsome 21 per cent of their money dining out.

It’s unclear whether these teens are dining out at Burger King a lot, their local trattoria sometimes, or the French Laundry hardly ever. However, if they’re not showing off by eating out, they’re apparently doing it by buying gadgets. Flicker explained it in terms of the specific iPhones teens display: “Will they buy the iPhone 6 when it comes out, or be stuck with the slower iPhone 5? Or, even worse, still have an iPhone 4?”