Teens who use a computer in their non-school writing feel that computers have a greater impact on the amount of writing they produce than on the overall quality of their writing. However, there is a great deal of ambiguity with respect to the impact of computers in each of these areas. Among teens who use a computer in their non-school writing, four in ten feel that computers help them do more writing, and a similar number feel that they would write the same amount whether they used a computer or not. In comparison, three in ten teens who write on a computer for non-school purposes at least occasionally feel that computers help them do better writing—and twice as many (63%) feel that computers make no difference in their writing quality. A small minority of teens feel that writing on a computer makes them write less than they would otherwise (12% feel this way) or that they write more poorly as a result (6%).

There are few major differences with respect to the impact of computers on the writing teens do outside of school. Girls tend to assign less responsibility to computers in terms of writing quality than boys—70% of girls say writing on a computer makes no difference in the quality of their writing, compared with 57% of boys.

In terms of the impact of computers on the amount of writing teens do, demographic differences center on age and parental education. Younger teens are more likely to feel that computers make them write less (18% of 12-14 year olds feel this way, compared with just 7% of older teens), while older teens are generally more likely to feel that computers have no impact on how much they write (47% believe this, versus 39% of younger teens). Parental education is also correlated with attitudes toward computers and writing. Among children of college-educated parents, 47% believe that they write more outside of school thanks to computers, compared with 34% of teens whose parents have no college experience.

Teens who personally own computers and those who do not are nearly identical in their attitudes toward the impact of computers on the quality and quantity of their writing.