Facebook Popularity Has Tanked Among Teens, Latest Study Shows

Social networking options continue to grow, and as more become established as popular and frequently-used options, teenagers find more incentive to gravitate away from the once-staple, Facebook. It is no secret that Facebook usage among teenager has been decreasing in recent times, and the latest study on the subject further validates this, showing Facebook's popularity among older teens as "dead".

The Global Social Media Impact Study surveyed Facebook usage among 16 to 18-year-old teenagers across eight European countries. Among this age group, many teenagers have elected to use Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and WhatsApp rather than Facebook, and the biggest reason cited was the growing number of older users — namely, parents sending their teenagers friend requests.

The study went on to show that teenagers aren't concerned with the level of sophistication and whether Facebook-alternative websites have less functionality. Likewise, the age group largely has little concerns over privacy settings, and is more likely to self-filter when posting a status on Facebook rather than when engaging in a more private form of social networking, such as a chat on WhatsApp.

Said University College London's Daniel Miller, the research team's head anthropologist, "Facebook is not just on the slide – it is basically dead and buried. Mostly they feel embarassed to even be associated with it. Where once parents worried about their children joining Facebook, the children now say it is their family that insists they stay there to post about their lives."

SOURCE: The Guardian