Twitter overtakes Facebook as the most popular social network for teens

10 years ago | Posted in: Technology | 904 Views

Mark Zuckerberg admitted it, and a new study has proved it: Facebook is no longer cool with teens.

The semi-annual Taking Stock with Teens study indicated that Twitter has overtaken Facebook as the most important social media network.

Last year, 42 per cent of teens rated Facebook as the most important social media took, while this year only 23 per cent rated it as the most influential.

Twitter was rated by 26 per cent of teens as their ‘most important’ social media site.

Not to be outdone, the Facebook-owned Instagram also garnered 23 per cent of votes, up from 12 per cent last year.

The study by investment firm Piper Jaffray gathers information relating to teen spending patterns, fashion trends, and brand and media preferences.

Another study, Pew’s Teens, Social Media and Privacy report, had similar findings.

Pew focus groups said the popularity of Facebook is waning because of parental and adult use of the site, other users ‘over-sharing’ and ‘drama’ that can erupt between Facebook ‘friends’.

According to Pew research, despite its lack of ‘cool,’ teens continue to use Facebook because ‘participation is an important part of overall teenage socializing.’

The study also noted that teens have an average of 300 Facebook friends but only 79 Twitter followers.

‘I got mine [Facebook account] around sixth grade. And I was really obsessed with it for a while. Then towards eighth grade, I kind of just – once you get into Twitter, if you make a Twitter and an Instagram, then you’ll just kind of forget about Facebook, is what I did,’ one teen told Pew researchers.

Zuckerberg himself may concur with teens who think Facebook is no longer cool.

‘People assume that we’re trying to be cool. It’s never been my goal. I’m the least cool person there is! We’re almost 10 years old so we’re definitely not a niche thing any more so that kind of angle for coolness is done for us,’ he told the Atlantic in September.

Instead of being cool, he wants Facebook to be a tool people use every day, ‘like electricity.’

The Piper Jaffray study lists other social media sites such as Tumblr and Google+, 17 per cent responded in the category marked ‘other.’

This indicates that other niche social media sites such as SnapChat and Vine are taking off in a big way with teens.

source: dailymail UK

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