Facebook waning, social media may have plateaued among teens, Pew study says
A huge update on our knowledge of teens and social media was released by Pew Research Center today. It's findings include some surprising info: Facebook use among teens is waning, teens do, in fact, value their privacy online, and a majority have friended their parents.
New data released by the Pew Research Center throws the curtains open on teenage social media habits: What do they share? Who do they friend? How often do they login?
Screenshot Pew Research Center
Contrary to how they鈥檙e typically represented in the news media, 鈥渇ew teens embrace a fully public approach to social media,鈥 Pew Internet reports in a major new study, 鈥.鈥 Yes, they share more about themselves than we did as teens, but 鈥渢hey take an array of steps to restrict and prune their profiles.鈥
Pew turned up a lot of intelligence on teens鈥 part, where safety, privacy and reputation management are concerned, bearing out聽聽last fall. Here are some key findings of this important research, Pew鈥檚 first in-depth look at teens鈥 online privacy since 2007:
- 鈥淭he frequency of teen social media usage may have reached a plateau鈥 鈥 the number of teens social media users who check their pages 鈥溾榮everal times a day鈥 hasn鈥檛 changed in any significant way since 2011,鈥 Pew says.
- 罢别别苍蝉鈥 Twitter use is up significantly, from 16% of US 12-to-17-year-olds in 2011 to nearly a quarter (24%) now, and African American teens use Twitter significantly more than white teens 鈥 39% vs. 23%, respectively.
- 鈥淭he typical (median) teen Facebook user has 300 friends, while the typical teen Twitter user has 79 followers鈥 (and Pew found that teens 鈥渄on鈥檛 always think of Twitter as a social networking site,鈥 though the authors didn鈥檛 say what they do think Twitter is).
- Online mirrors offline: 鈥湴毡鸨鸩圆踱 Facebook friendship networks largely mirror their offline networks鈥 (which should further reduce the speculative 鈥渟tranger danger鈥 fears of the previous decade and its national task forces [see聽]). 鈥淯nwanted contact from strangers is relatively uncommon, but 17% of online teens report some kind of contact that made them feel scared or uncomfortable,鈥 Pew said, adding in a footnote, thought that its question did not reference sexual solicitations, so respondents could鈥檝e been referring to a wide array of concerning behaviors or interactions.
- A whopping 70% of teen Facebook users say they鈥檙e friends with their parents on FB, and 91% of teen Facebook users are friends with members of their extended family.
- Their use of Facebook is 鈥渨aning.鈥
- We knew this, but it鈥檚 important confirmation: 鈥60% of teen Facebook users keep their profiles private [note that Pew's not just saying that 60% use privacy settings], and most report high levels of confidence in their ability to manage their settings.鈥 On Twitter, thought, nearly two-thirds (64%) of teens tweet publicly, which is typical for adult Twitter users too.
- 鈥淭eens take other steps to shape their reputation, manage their networks, and mask information 鈥╰hey don鈥檛 want others to know: 74% of teen social media users have deleted people from their 鈥╪etwork or friends list鈥; 58% 鈥渟hare inside jokes or cloak their messages in some way鈥 (see this about 鈥渟ocial steganography鈥 from researcher聽); 26% post false information like a fake name, age, or location to help protect their privacy (see this about聽聽as a safety measure).
- Teens with larger friend networks on Facebook also use more social apps and services other than Facebook. They also share more information and media while at the same time show more care with 鈥減rofile pruning鈥 and reputation management.
- 罢别别苍蝉鈥 concern about advertisers鈥 access to their information is low: 鈥渏ust 9% say they are 鈥榲ery鈥 concerned鈥; 40% are somewhat *or* very concerned, while 81% of parents are somewhat or very concerned about this for their children. Pew adds that 鈥渢eens who are concerned about third-party access to their personal information are also more likely to engage in online reputation management.鈥
So let鈥檚 zoom in on the reasons teens interviewed in focus groups gave Pew for why they鈥檙e using Facebook less and consider some takeaways:
- 鈥淭he increase in adult presence鈥: The takeaway we might consider is that trying to monitor teens鈥 activities by setting up an account in every online service and app they use in a kind of whack-a-mole approach to tech parenting won鈥檛 ultimately keep parents abreast of their kids鈥 digital activities for the simple reason that the more we monitor, the more likely they are to move on. It鈥檒l get harder and harder, too, because they aren鈥檛 moving on to a single new service (the way in the last decade Facebook replace MySpace as the No. 1 social network site). Today, digital socializing is expanding and diversifying because it鈥檚 now on the mobile platform at least as much as the Web. It looks like digital monitoring and 鈥減arental controls鈥 are being replaced by good old-fashioned communication between parent and child about how they use digital devices and spaces (we ConnectSafely folk offer discussion points in two of those spaces with our聽).
- 鈥People sharing excessively鈥: Note how smart Pew鈥檚 respondents are to find that annoying! What this indicates is that protective social norms are developing 鈥 teens are viewing it less and less socially acceptable to overshare. Adults might find it comforting to see this; it鈥檚 online safety in action at the grassroots level. And I hope parents will increasingly understand and acknowledge the protective power of social norms among young people every bit as much as among adults.
- 鈥淪tressful 鈥榙rama鈥欌: This is one reason why, in other reports, young people are saying they鈥檙e moving to Snapchat and other perishable media services: drama avoidance (see聽). If the photos and videos vanish in 10 seconds or less, there鈥檚 no chance posturing (or 鈥減osing鈥), no self-presentation, 鈥渃laiming,鈥 or grandstanding. Drama can鈥檛 build. Sharing becomes just fun, spontaneous and, well, gone in a few seconds. What a relief, huh? Drama can鈥檛 build (or at least drama queens and kings have to work a lot harder), people can let down their guard a little (a聽little), and reputation management becomes a little less of an issue.
鈥淥ne of the most striking themes that surfaced through the Berkman focus groups this spring,鈥 the authors write (referring to their co-authors at Harvard University鈥檚 Berkman Center for Internet & Society), 鈥渨as the sense of a social burden teens associated with Facebook. While Facebook is still deeply integrated in teens鈥 everyday lives, it is sometimes seen as a utility and an obligation rather than an exciting new platform that teens can claim as their own.鈥 Thus their growing interest in the mobile platform. Facebook and its Instagram app are mobile, too, but so are hundreds of thousands of other apps offering at least thousands of different uses. 罢别别苍蝉鈥 digital social activities, from the friendship-driven to the interest-driven kinds*, are diversifying and segmenting. That makes for fascinating conversations with our children and their peers. Seriously, there is so much to learn about them now in kinder, more respectful, less intrusive ways than through impersonal monitoring software and 鈥減arental controls.鈥
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