Don't Worry Facebook, You're Still Down With The Kids

Facebook may be regularly plagued with ominous predictions that teens with short attention spans have moved on to brighter social networks, but according to new research there's still life in Zuckerberg's site yet. The Pew Research Center prized teenagers away from their smartphones to ask them which social sites and apps they frequent, and while Facebook may have been branded passé by some, it's still the most-used among the 13-17 demographic. That's no small audience, either, with 24-percent of teenagers telling the research firm that they are "almost constantly" online.

Of the 1,060 teenagers Pew spoke to, 71-percent use Facebook. Instagram – which Facebook owns, of course – came in second, at 52-percent.

Ephemeral messaging service Snapchat, which has been criticized by some for facilitating "sexting" among teenagers, was in third place in Pew's findings. 41-percent of teens reported using it.

Twitter came in fourth, with 33-percent, perhaps unexpectedly matched by Google+. Vine, which has made a number of "stars" with six second videos, was used by just less than a quarter of those surveyed, at 24-percent, while Tumblr came in at 14-percent.

As for how often they're online, the rise of the smartphone has seen teen use shoot up tremendously. 56-percent of teenagers say they're online several times a day, with just 12-percent saying they only get online once each day.

91-percent of teens use mobile devices – like smartphones – "at least occasionally" for their access. They're also embracing IM services; a third use something like Kik or WhatsApp. Nonetheless, the "average" teen sends and receives 30 traditional text messages every day.

According to Facebook, the next big area of growth – and where it's betting its Oculus investment – is virtual reality. The company believes that immersive shared experiences are the future, though it may take a decade before we reach that point.

SOURCE Pew Research Center