YouTube Leads Youth Storytelling Survey as AI Unease Rises With Age

Young audiences see YouTube as a storytelling medium alongside television and film, remain drawn to movie theaters and express increasingly uneasy reactions to stories about artificial intelligence across older age groups, according to the 2026 Teens and Screens report. The findings come from the Center for Scholars & Storytellers at UCLA.

The fifth annual report surveyed roughly 1,500 people ages 10–24 nationwide about entertainment, social media, gaming and AI. Its broad age range captures children, teenagers and young adults rather than teenagers alone, an important distinction when interpreting differences in their responses.

Asked which media can tell a story, 72.9% selected YouTube, compared with 70.3% for television and 70.2% for movies. Those figures measure recognition of storytelling capability, not viewing time or an exclusive preference for one platform over another.

Short-form storytelling also gained broad acceptance: 79% said brief videos can tell a story. Yet theatrical entertainment retained its attraction, with seeing a new movie in a theater topping the weekend-activity ranking for the third consecutive year, according to UCLA’s account of the findings.

Responses to stories about AI were mixed rather than uniformly fearful. Overall, 28.2% described feeling fascinated and 25.6% excited, while 22% felt doomed and 10.1% scared. These answers concern reactions to AI in stories, not necessarily respondents’ experiences using AI tools.

Age differences were pronounced. Among respondents ages 10–13, 44.2% described programs about AI as fascinating, while fewer than 10% expressed doom; among those 19 and older, 27.4% reported doom and 17.7% excitement. The comparison identifies differences between age groups, rather than establishing that individuals become more pessimistic as they grow older.

Enthusiasm for digital platforms did not translate directly into enthusiasm for influencer casting. Asked whom they would cast, 39.8% chose new actors, narrowly ahead of known actors at 38.2%, while 16.8% selected influencers. The result suggests that familiarity with online personalities and interest in seeing them lead screen stories are distinct questions.

Representation was another focus. Fifty-five percent wanted more neurodivergent characters, but only 22.7% believed existing portrayals felt true to life most of the time. Demand was particularly strong among respondents identifying as LGBTQIA+ or having a disability, highlighting differences that an overall audience average can obscure.

The findings offer entertainment companies a more complicated picture than a simple migration from traditional screens to social platforms. Young people recognize stories in short videos while still expressing interest in theatrical films, and their casting preferences do not automatically favor internet fame. The survey describes stated attitudes, however, rather than guaranteeing ticket sales or viewing behavior.

For creators, the next challenge is translating those preferences into programming without treating young audiences as a single group. Study authors Yalda T. Uhls and Stephanie Rivas-Lara frame listening to young people and reflecting their experiences as central to that work, with the report intended to inform decisions about future storytelling.