Twitter seems to be the hottest thing in tech recently — if you look at TechCrunch, it averages at least 3 posts a week about Twitter. But the bigger question is, who is really using Twitter? Many of you might think that, as with most of the latest gadgets and technologies, teenagers are using Twitter, but you’re wrong, and here’s why. Matthew Robson, a 15 year old intern, over at Morgan Stanley, wrote a report on how teenagers are consuming media, and why Twitter isn’t the hot topic in high school halls.
If you look at technologies trending with teens right now, it’s Apple devices (iPhone, iPod), smart phones (Blackberry, Palm), and then social networks (Facebook and MySpace). At least that’s what I see from hanging out with 1,500 other teenagers in high school every day (I am 16 years old). But why not Twitter? Well, because Twitter is a different type of social network than Facebook. Facebook is about connecting people, and sharing information with each other. The way my friends and I see it, Facebook is a closed network. It’s a network of people and friends that you trust to be connected to, and to share information like your email address, AIM screen name, and phone number. You know who’s getting your status messages, because you either approved or added each person to your network.
With Twitter, it’s the exact opposite. Anyone can follow your status updates. It’s a completely open network that makes teenagers feel “unsafe” about posting their content there, because who knows who will read it. Sure, you get emails notifying you when you have new followers, but that doesn’t compare to the level of detail you get when someone on Facebook adds you, and you get their information.
According to June, 2009 comScore numbers, 11.3% of visitors to Twitter.com in the U.S. are ages 12-17. Internationally, in May, 2009, only 4.4% of visitors were younger then 18.
Twitter is also seen as more expensive to keep up with than Facebook. Most of my friends spend their time playing video games, watching TV, surfing online, and text messaging to actual friends who you know will reply back. In an economy like this, most parents don’t want to spend the extra money on unlimited texting to total strangers. So why spend money on sending SMS updates to Twitter, when you can send updates to someone you know will read it and reply?
Facebook has a more dedicated community than Twitter, which is why teenagers want to use it. Maybe the reason Twitter still isn’t considered mainstream quite yet is because Gen Y isn’t the early adopter this time around.
Liked the post but I have to say that I read a similar post earlier at Tech 24 Hours on June 17. Here’s the link, for proof:- http://www.tech...ed-away-by.html
There are often many stories around the Web on related topics. This one is obviously uniquely (and well) written.
Daniel makes a number of new relevant points too. Todays teens have been bombarded with online safety messages for a long time (the last 6-7 years). It’s actually a very positive thing to know those messages are at least somewhat sinking in!
Very interesting perspectives.
I agree with you Allison. I was just sharing what I read. There’s no doubt that Daniel has done a great job with this post.
yes i agree ..
Very good post Daniel. It has the depth and perspective that is required of this topic. Just one thing, did you ever happen to analyze if teens turn into Twitter users in the future? If yes, at what age approx. they turn to Twitter?
I also think TC should write a post on the demographics of people who use Twitter most and why they use it!
What’s alarming to me is the fact that they (when I say they I mean my kids too:) perceive social networks as “private” private is a very fragile thing… it’s fragile on a technical level (it’s nothing but a flag on the database) but also on a social level where a “friend” can become a social “enemy” and expose your so called “private” stuff…
I prefer my kids to be aware that every word they post on the web could, in some scenario, become public and associated with them…
It’s cool that we can “educate” our kids for privacy but what we’re selling them (and ourselves) is an illusion..
I wrote somrting similar a few months as well wrt to college students – http://socialap...witter-updates/
That is NOT why teens don’t use it. It is because teens don’t care about news, they want to talk to friends and see and comment on their pictures, and Myspace and facebook are better for that.
Flickr, short URLs, that’s all too complicated.
Yeah the photos is a big thing on this, they all wanna see photos, new photos always. People refresh more the twitter feed than facebook feed.
At the end, the photos is a big deal, that’s why the amazing invest on dedicated servers, that’s the main reason, but if you want o stay connected, twitter is the big winner.
John
http://www.encu...ntry/JobUsa.htm
—————————————
USA Online Jobs
Twitter is theater… while Facebook is IMAX with dolby surround sound…
so…
YEAH KIDS JUST WANT TO SEE SKIN, Twitter is more for news feeds
I agree with the author, and would say that using facebook, is significantly more complicated than posting 140 characters on Twitter.
Ask any teen, they would be uncomfortable with random strangers reading their facebook status as well.
This is not true. It’s not about safety, it’s the fact tht Twitter doesn’t justify itself to them. It’s the status part of Facebook, and that’s it. So…they’d rather stay on Facebook.
They don’t know about how you can use it to learn things and stay in the loop, the them, it’s just the status part of Facebook.
It has nothing to do with safety. The same way they make their profiles private, they’d make their tweets private if they wanted it.
Look at me, I just make shit up and pretend it’s fact! Fool.
Agree completely Jonathan. Very good point. (I’m 19) but I run corporate twitters and Facebooks so I wouldn’t consider myself an average 19 year old.
I think this post is right on. They don’t understand how it differs. If Twitter is understood by some of the Gen Y kids, but they follow who they want to…celebs. The older crowd has figured out how to use Twitter as a tool to share knowledge. Find a group of “sages” and have knowledge pushed at you.
I agree — if teens are so concerned about privacy, why do so many of them still have public MySpace profiles? Twitter simply doesn’t offer teens anything new because they don’t see any value in using it as an RSS feed of links. I think it’s less that they’re worried about putting their information out there, and more that they’re simply uninterested in engaging with the community on Twitter.
Re: the comment you added below, teens have put WAY more info out there on their blogs and MySpaces than is given away in just a bio/location.
I agree. Teens don’t care about news. That is why they don’t love Twitter. They are more interested in sharing stories / pictures with friends in their social network. Hence they’re more interested in Facebook.
Twitter is used, by those who understand it, as an RSS feed for news stories they are interested in. They are directed to interesting links, not by their friends, but by people with expertise in the particular fields that the user chooses to follow up. The twos services serve different functions and it’s no surprise that Facebook’s chief function appeals more to a teen audience.
Mathew nailed it. Excellent summary of what Twitter is really for. (Matthew, I’ll be borrowing this and giving you credit!)
I’m 16 and absolutely love twitter for this exact purpose. Links, news, etc are very useful to me
You must be kidding. Twitter is about what you ate for lunch today and SMS texting your followers about it.
Don’t be ignorant. Learn about twitter before you label it like this.
Agreed.
There is nothing to learn. They have zero technological innovation. Any engineer who knows how to build scalable internet applications can recreate this in a month.
I think teens don’t have time to spend updating for strangers like aplusk, but actually want to spend time with real friends, playing video games and sports, and not imaginary invisible friends. Unlike adults, who have friends from long-distance, most teens only hang out with close friends, so what is the point of updating the twitter when you actually have a life, like school, sports, etc. Its more of a time issue and being in front of a computer.
( This post is from a teenage, so be warned.
)
[ Also, don't forget about the "nature of the bell curve". ]
You are all correct, teens want to experiment and try new things, but some/most are starting to realize just how their actions can determine their future. Kids who (truly) want to have professional and high paying careers understand the basics of social network dynamics, they know that posting pictures of my party to flicker and then tweeting them on twitter is bad.
So instead they use Facebook (A more closed network) to share those same photos, without knowing that Facebook is really not as closed as it could be.
Kids today are becoming more evolved/engaged but social networks are allowing them to become to a bias ( The amount of teens that visit [ or even receive news from multiple ] “creditable” sources is fundamentally to low). Kids are expecting to not have to deal with things until their mid to late 20’s, frankly that will never happen from now on.
The really sad thing is that they feel they have complete control of their online actions and they know whats best. I fear for my classmates who are wasting away parting at a major turning point in American and global history.
I really don’t care what my friends are doing or what photos they post. I love twitter due to the fact it’s actually useful (via links/free stuff/tutorials) other then just seeing what friend is going to bed or who got the most drunk at that party. (16 btw)
Very much agreed. It isn’t about safety or how much it’ll cost their parents to pay for an unlimited text messaging plan.
Teens go to where their friends are. Their friends are on Facebook, not Twitter. If enough of their friends aren’t on a certain social network, then they won’t use it. They aren’t interested in following CNN, Scoble or some random PR guy. The only teens that I know use Twitter, use it to follow celebs.
Funny, when I first interviewed Daniel (back when he was 14) we talked about Twitter: http://www.podt...tional-teenager is the interview.
A great interview with Daniel and they keep getting better.
“Funny, when I…”
It’s all about Scooby.
I completely agree. Also, most of these teens see each other every single day at school. If any news is to be shared, it’s likely during lunch or in class. Sharing blog links isn’t something they typically do.
As far as safety, that’s complete crap. The kid doesn’t know much about Twitter, apparently, and the option to have your Tweets remain private or to opt out of putting any info in one’s bio line. He’s probably not familiar with discretion, either, if a major concern is who’s going to be reading whatever is put on Twitter.
I disagree with you Daniel. I think Myspace and Facebook are just as “unsafe” as these kids think Twitter is. Now I am not sure if they had just added this feature, but I can control whoever wants to see my status updates, so not everyone can see my twitter updates. I wasn’t sure what it was at first and I was uninterested, however after using it for a month or two I am really starting to like it, even more than facebook.
Twitter is only cool for self promoters and people are marketing something. It’s basically good for legal and contrived form of spam/marketing.
Teens don’t care about that crap and MS report clearly shows that.
Yes, TC is pushing Twitter as if they own a stock in it, but they do it because they get links back and traffic from it. It’s a parasitic relationship.
Normal people, people who don’t have craploads of free time and have actual work to do, don’t give a damn about Twitter.
Also, it seems that celebrities have given up on Twitter as well! Oprah hasn’t updated in over a month!!!!
Twitter is a passing fad and in a year’s time, everyone will consider it as something stupid… just like they did in 2007.
“Normal people, people who don’t have craploads of free time and have actual work to do, don’t give a damn about Twitter.”
+1
+5
+100 What is the fascination with knowing what someone is doing 24/7 every second? Most of the tweets are useless anyway. This is one of the biggest hypes of all time.
+1000
Still don’t “get” Twitter. No reason to post, no reason to follow, no reason to search.
If you don’t get it, you don’t get it. Got it. Now, go away, and leave it to those of us who DO get it.
+100000
Don’t get it either, overrated to the max.
Spoken like someone who has never used Twitter much. I used to naysay it too, but now I use it to follow my favorite topics, like classic movies. Sure, there are shallow people on Twitter, but no one’s forcing you to follow them and read their poop!
Totally wrong all you guys. “Normal people, people who don’t have craploads of free time and have actual work to do” certainly have less free time than teens; and yet their usage of Twitter is far higher as aforementioned. So clearly, they do give a damn.
Even though I use Twitter almost daily, I do feel like it’s a passing fad which will cease to exist in about a year. I could be wrong, but it would be funny as hell to look back on it as the company everyone almost wanted to buy, a company valued to be in the hundreds of millions, if not billions, and then suddenly disappeared into oblivion.
Yes. Great summary.
bullseye
I agree 100 %.
I’m sure Twitter will sink, “public sms” is a bad concept.
I’d be curious to see what teens’ reactions are as Facebook continues to open up and promote sharing outside its walls. For example, my wife (not a teen) loves the ability to update friends and family without sharing information outside that circle. I’m not sure if she’d bother if the service’s privacy was called into question by confusing sharing controls.
What’s wrong with the comment page? Sometimes it takes too long for a comment to appear.
So “Protect my updates” from the “settings” menu doesn’t work for you?
Even if the updates are protected, your bio, and location is still shared. Personally, I’m very careful on how much information I put out because of this.
If you really want to protect that, then you won’t type that info there anyways. similar to last.fm. you don’t have to write your actual age and location. your friends know where you are and how old you are. i protect my updates on twitter and never had any issues.
both services are just as vulnerable to someone who really wants to know.
Then why do you put your bio and your location in addition to a whole lot of other information about the expensive gadgetry you own in your about me page which is easily found with a Google search?
http://www.dani...u.com/colophon/
But do I ever mention the exact location of where I am? I tell people I live in Silicon Valley, and that’s it. If they know me personally, then they’ll know more about me.
It’s really not about safety or worries that people will know their name and location. Teens will hold beers in their default Facebook picture, which anyone can see by Google. This really isn’t the issue, the issue is Twitter is just Facebook statuses and everyone already has a Facebook.
Plus, if your going to protect your updates, you should just use Facebook!
Twitter is designed to be public!
You choose what you put in your bio. You can say your location is Mars if you like. How is that compromising your security?
I was beginning to wonder why there aren’t very many high schoolers on Twitter. I figured it would be the “that’s for old people” stigma – not a security/safety issue.
Great insight – especially considering it’s straight from a 16-year-old.
You can protect your updates in Twitter too.
Yes but teens probably aren’t aware of this. From the outside it looks like a VERY public service.
Thanks daniel, great article.
I wouldn’t say they’re not aware of it- I’d say that, even if your updates are protected, it’s still a very open system. For example, while my tweets are protected, anyone can reference stuff I’ve said (which is potentially even more dangerous- my name is being used, and I can’t control it).
I think the bigger thing is students just don’t care what people they don’t know are saying- they’d much rather participate in a network centered around them and people they know (Facebook) than around a million different things (Twitter).
Morgan Stanley has 15 yr old interns? really?
LOL… ditto.
apparently, his report was so good that MS decided to publish it. Nothing to gag about here…
has nothing to do with whether or not it’s good….
Seriously, I’m still on 15 year old intern. way to go kid.
Here’s what Guardian says about this report:
“On the other hand, teenagers do not use twitter. Most have signed up to the service, but then just leave it as they realise that they are not going to update it (mostly because texting twitter uses up credit, and they would rather text friends with that credit). In addition, they realise that no one is viewing their profile, so their ‘tweets’ are pointless.”
Hey Daniel, where the heck do you see word safety in there??? You’re just pulling crap out of nowhere and you’re manufacturing stuff!
THE REPORT SAYS EXACTLY WHY Twitter is failing! It’s NOT about security!
Daniel is telling you how he feels as a teen, not just parroting the report. That was just a jumping off point for this post.
When I was at SXSW last year they had a teen panel made up of youth who go to a tech school. Half the panel had never even HEARD of twitter before the conference.
As a teen, I think his has the right to do some original reporting!
Much of that is definitely true, with the exception of the cost issue. On a mobile device, you can connect to Twitter with a mobile app like PocketTwit, Twibble, etc which connects via the data plan you have on your phone (and if these kids are on facebook…then they’d surely have an unlimited data plan already).
By the way I’m generation Y and uses it a lot.
Right, isn’t Gen Y like 30 years old now?
yup!
No, Gen Y’s very oldest members would be about 29. Most of them are in their late teens, early twenties.
I find it really hard to believe that teens don’t know they can set their Twitter accounts to private and only tweet to, and with, people they know.
“Anyone can follow your status updates.”
That’s a bunch of crap. Just go the web site, click on settings, then check “Protect my updates”. Notice the explanation “Only let people whom I approve follow my updates.”
Your profile information is still shared, and having a protected profile kinda defeats the purpose of twitter, don’t you think?
Facebook has tons and tons of impressive privacy controls.
I have observed quite the contrary with my High School friends. They are flocking to Twitter as a means of following celebrities and keeping tabs with people, virtually all of them are private profiles. Also it must be noted that most of the content on Twitter is frankly not that valuable or important (at least compared to Facebook) so “teens” are not pulling the safety card, just yet.
I am not a teen, but for me there is much that is valuable and important on Twitter. I choose to follow people whose tweets keep me informed of much that is relevant to my job as a teacher. Without Twitter, I would know a lot less than I do now!
It shows a serious amount of naïveté to say there is nothing of value or importance on Twitter.
I have to read far more rubbish on facebook than I do on Twitter (stupid quiz results, dumb status updates, idiotic requests from apps…), but I use it for social reasons, and so have been less picky.
I think one of the attractions younger people have with facebook (over Twitter) is that more information is gained in a faster time. It’s the “I want it now!” generation at their very best! To find out about someone on Twitter takes way too much time – you have to follow every one of their <140char tweets to get some insight into who they are…
the first line should be “According to Techcrunch, Twitter seems to be the hottest thing in tech recently”
Take a look at the trending topics on twitter right now – do you think teens care about that?
I’m 15, and yes, I do care about most of that. Then again, I’m a TC reader, so I’m not the average 15 year old.
seriously dude, do you even know who michael jackson is?
Same here, I’m 17 but I’ve already built 4 websites and I’m active on tons of technology debates. It seems that we are ahead of the pack (and on the upside of the bell curve), it’s our job to educate our piers or risk losing them.
Technology won’t stop, the infants of today will never be without instant public sharing and data access.
>I’ve already built 4 websites
depends on what you mean, but I doubt this is unique.
>I’m active on tons of technology debates.
not sure what that means.
>It seems that we are ahead of the pack
not necessarily. it seems like most teens are actively engaged with technology – even if by default.
>and on the upside of the bell curve
well, no. the left side is below average, midpoint is “average” and the right side would be the overachievers.
Nice of you to dissect his comment and disagree with every aspect!
Missed one:
>educate our piers
Piers tend to support bridges or dock ships. Peers are people.
Not my experience at all (worked in higher ed for more than ten years in multiple states). Most teens and young adults I work with use the web all the time, and text all the time, but they don’t know how to code HTML let alone use some of the more complex packages available. Some of them are still using dialup at home occasionally.
You might also want to read the controversial piece about hegemony, Facebook, and MySpace by Danah Boyd: http://www.zeph...ng_america.html – in a nutshell, she points out class and other distinctions. Kids who are less tech-oriented are going to be found more often on Myspace.
Great post, Daniel- Facebook got big because it was a closed network. People could be themselves- using their real names and pictures, for the first time ever on the internet- and not have to worry about privacy and security.
Twitter is great for a lot of things (and, James Stern- you’re completely wrong. It’s not too complicated, and it’s not because teens aren’t smart enough), however it’s the opposite of Facebook.
The fact that Facebook is so hellbent on replicating Twitter in order to stay relevant is ironic, in the sense that they’re shedding many of the features that made Facebook so popular in the first place.
I am 18 and I am a frequent Twitter user. I know quite a few people my age and under who use it, too, although I have noticed that teens (no pun intended) are a minority on Twitter.
Wow, I couldn’t disagree with this article more; I know few teenagers who use Twitter (I’m 17), but this isn’t the reason—they don’t use Twitter because it offers virtually zero functionality that Facebook doesn’t, and teenagers are very likely to be avid Facebook users already. Facebook is managing to take over MySpace because it is a superior product; if you describe Twitter to nearly any Facebook user they’ll just ask why anyone would want a dumbed-down version of Facebook with virtually no features.
Also, the article argues that we’re into iPhones and BlackBerrys, so why would Twitter’s use of texting be an issue—we’re becoming more and more connected to the internet everywhere we are.
Agreed. I’m 18, and I don’t use twitter because it isn’t a value-added proposition. The people I want to talk to are already on Facebook, and I can use it to communicate and stay in touch easily. From my understanding of Twitter the primary application, beyond what I can get from Facebook (for friends) and Google Reader (for real news) is “following” famous people whose lives don’t seem particularly relevant to my interests.
On the other hand, I check my Facebook and Google Reader accounts several times throughout the day.
I agree with you Omer. I have 3 teenage/preteen kids and they prefer FB because they can chat with friends and post pictures easier. My younger ones like the quizzes and games on FB. Personally I use Twitter to feed FB because I hate having to wade through pages of my high school friends results on “How Retarded Are You” or “Joe just invited you to Mafia Wars” on the feed pages.
Most people don’t get Twitter and that’s fine. Stay on FB and MySpace. I can adjust my content on Twitter to hear from people that I wouldn’t normally get insight from. I use it for business to find out about new products or industry news from experts without having to scour the net for them. Will I be a Twitter-holic next year, I don’t know, but I am enjoying it now before people really start to ruin it.
With Facebook there’s too much crap and I don’t want to chat with people I went to school with 20 years ago every day. My oldest son chats all night with his friends. It is the equivalent of being on the phone all night with friends when I was a kid. They just do it online now. You can’t really do that with Twitter. It’s not what it is about. I find it strange how everyone tries to compare FB and Twitter. They really are not very much alike.
Good analysis.
I asked people at my high school why they weren’t on twitter. The main response I got was “why would i want to update my status twice?”
No one could get past that.
TweetDeck. enough said.
I agree Alex, that’s why I ping everything once. wait for response from apps.. but FB, in general, leads the way.
I love TechCrunch’s in-depth coverage on teen media usage with the Morgan Stanley or their own in-house report with a sample-size of one.
Seriously, what’s with this? Do research standards go out the window as soon as teens are involved? Yes, teens don’t use Twitter, as comScore or Quantcast point out quite well.
Speculation on why that is from a single data point isn’t exactly quality reporting. While Daniel may not feel safe using Twitter, what about other income-brackets? Are the reasons the same? Across genders? Data and speculation are two very different things, and while the latter can be very useful, it gets better the more it relies on the former.
This “report” is based on the opinion of one 15 year old boy who was “interning” at Morgan Stanley for a whole week.
The fact that anyone paid attention to this and took it for something was more serious than one kid’s opinion is absurd.
Just because he is 15 and interning at Morgan Stanley, and it is just his opinion, that does not make him wrong.
No, but it’s not really a research report.
For April Fool’s I wrote an article parodying media usage reports based on small sample sizes. A lot of the “fake” observations are proabbly close to the truth – but it’s bad research to depend on what “feels” right.
http://advance....pglab.com/?p=58
Facebook is easier for everyone because all our friends already use it.
Exactly. Twitter is still a “new thing” that people are starting to flock to. Most people use Twitter now to follow celebs, like Kanye and Ashton.
I would like to see the data proving that most people use Twitter to follow celebs. But then I suppose we get into the discussion of what constitutes a celebrity.
Kanye, of course, isn’t on Twitter and in fact absolutely despises it. (At least last I heard he does.)
Sadly,
– http://wefollow.com/top
I count 7/10 and 15/20 as celebrities.
Closed network or not, Facebook and Myspace aren’t safe either (if by ’safe’ you mean ’something I share with my friends can’t be seen by my parents/future boss/others’). Any one person in your network can copy the information and share it with the rest of the world.
It’s been a while since high school but I do recall how last year’s BFF can become this year’s distant acquaintance (or worse). Whether you’re an adult or a teen, when you share something online make sure it’s something you’d be comfortable being on the entire world’s Facebook wall.
Yep, while closed gardens like Facebook offer a degree of initial privacy, users need to assume that any content placed there (same as here or anywhere), can end up who knows where. My take from reading this thread is many FB users do not get this. But for some, they may at least feel they have control over their current personal network on FB (which is good enough), and the longer term consequences are not really considered in terms of ‘data leakage.’
I don’t understand the hype for such a thing. whats next 85 years old retired employee of Morgen Stanley saying he cant tweet cause its takes a lot of money from his pension . GET IN YOUR SENSES
Matthew Robson may be right about what *he* does. Daniel Brusilovsky may be telling the truth about *his* behaviour. But in no sense are one or two people a statistically valid sample.
This topic needs some proper validated research before we go and run with it. As a friend of mine puts it, “Anecdotes are not data.”
So until you have valid research under your belt, be careful what you do with stuff like this.
I think this is a good article, but I think somewhere someone missed something. Not to disagree with anyone, have an opinion, but there are two big problems with teens and twitter, well three. 1. I don’t know a teen who does not feel invisible. 2. Teens want something different than what in my opinion Twitter is and offers. 3. I think the “safe” card is saying more, either a. we don’t get it or b. this is not something that we would use. If your confused please reference my 1. point. Just saying.
Like I said on ReadWriteWeb…
You don’t need a “report” for this. Twitter is more of a “what’s the point of this?” tool for teenagers. If they can’t see friends pictures and have more features than just a status then why would they use it? Facebook already has a place where you can update your status and report whatever you want.
I don’t buy the “its too expensive” argument at all. You don’t have to text your status updates to Twitter. Use the website, use an app, etc.
Also, many have already commented on the ability to protect your updates. I have several friends on Twitter that do that and they haven’t had any issues.
Wait till those “young people” grow up and start realizing some of their greatest security threats exist inside their “closed” friend networks.
Not that I am an advocate of security existing on any network currently, but the young are hardly bearing the viewpoints of the future. If I wanted a consumer opinion, I can ask any young person. They are being trained in schools everyday to be good ones. Hopefully the web will be more than that one day.
Whats of more interest is why people use the tools they use in a market environment they participate with as vested owners.
I have the feeling that twitter appears more as an informational web tool, which helps us remaining up-to-date with news from the world and topics of interest, as well as maybe developing some sort of professional contacts. At least it’s my personal use of it. Facebook, on the other side, appears more as social and sharing platform, which doesn’t leave its core function: connecting friends and family. Any action done on facebook such as sharing video, playing flash games… is aimed to be seen by some people that we know. Games are played to beat each other’s scores, as well as status and sharings are made to be commented in a way.. which I reckon explains pretty well why teens use facebook instead of twitter: for a matter of interests..but knowing that only little personal details are uploaded on twitter, I don’t really think the “security” argument is the first reason.
Yes, this is exactly it. The behavior I see on Twitter and Facebook are very different. And that’s most likely because Facebook encourages your “physical” social graph, while Twitter lets you connect with anyone you find interesting.
Sounds like the writer has a relationship with Facebook.
This has inspired a blog post. Thanks Daniel.
My thoughts on this being only 22 and joining Myspace in 2003 when I was only 15)
http://bit.ly/9KLDK
I appreciate Daniel’s take on it. I’m a few years older – just finished my first year of college – and none of my friends ‘get’ Twitter. The one-to-many medium doesn’t make sense to them.
I think Twitter could go a couple directions from here on out: 1.) a source for up to the second news, real-time search 2.) a platform for brands, both business and personal (the line has blurred)
It will never be a primary communication tool for our generation.
First off, what’s with all this Gen y nonsense? Who came up with that crap? Clearly someone with little or no notion of the defining nature of gen x. There was no gen w, there will be no gen y.
Secondly, this article seems to have missed the point that Twitter is a micro blogging site not a social network. I don’t think anyone at twitter hq will be crying in to their cereal about not having a bunch of mindless tweens polluting the internet any further.
Thirdly, this entire furore has kicked off because some kid working as an intern at Morgan Stanley said what he thought 15 year old kids were doing on the internet. News flash, most normal 15 year old kids don’t do internships at Morgan Stanley.
This is the tech news sector getting caught up in what the financial sector reported as news. Last I checked these guys don’t understand technology, they seem to barely understand economics these days.
Phew, rant over.
Basically – you want to be able to post. “Man. I just spent the afternoon sniffing butane” – without your Mom finding out.
I can relate.
Really? This from my generation that flocked to MySpace mid-decade as a portal for unsafe amd cluttered communication? Can’t say I agree
Very interesting statistics, I think that most teenagers are consumed in texting and myspace that they don’t care about Twitter. On the other hand, teens that are more like me, a person that is familiar to technology and web bases applications, and hate mySpace will be on Twitter. Also, if they are a person that knows about web security they know how to protect themselves. For example, I know about SSL, and server side security as well as the block and private tweets functionality that Twitter offers. Based on that I’m really not worried about privacy on twitter.
Or maybe it just sucks.
I’m 22years old and I started to use twitter not so long ago, but my use of it is obviously contrasting with my use of facebook..Twitter appears to be more a web tool that helps us remaining up-to-date with news from the world or at least our fields of interest, as well as maybe developing some sort of professional contacts…Facebook, on the other hand, never walked away from its core function: being a social platform which connects friends and family. Twitter seems based on sharing impersonal information when every actions done on facebook (at least from my point of view) is made to be seen by our entourage and create some sort of reaction: games are played to beat friend’s scores, videos and status are shared to be commented.
So I reckon what teens prefer in facebook is the social recognition which is engendered by every action taken, when Twitter seems more impersonal and aimed to a more “grown-up” community..(which actually correspond to the tendency of GenY to be seeking for this social recognition). The security plays for me only a small role, as details uploaded on twitter are quite little..
This is an interesting article and quite important. If you consider that LinkedIn is arguably more relevant to Gen X than Facebook, it would now appear that Facebook may be more relevant to Gen Y than Twitter. Moral of the story – challenge your assumptions.
So it’s fine to post fairly public pictures of underage drinking and girls making out with girls, but it’s not OK to post about heading to work or that you’re stuck at home watching a movie with your dog?
You can easily turn off exposure to the Public Timeline to prevent people (aka Spammers) from following you. Yeah it can be done in FB, but it’s a lot more complex with all the various options.
And in regards to text messaging, lots of people I know have unlimited texts or even Internet access, therefore eliminating the need to use texts.
The issue isn’t safety, as much as it “What the hell is it?” I explain to them it’s basically FB statuses, and then the next question is “Well, what’s the point then?” since FB provides that functionality plus more.
Twitter is really designed more for networking, something that most teens don’t need. They already have their networks, AKA cliques. Who wants to network? College students, Professionals, etc. It’s also a means of gathering News (such as on the recent Iranian Crisis); most teens could care less about this stuff, unfortunately.
To be honest, I don’t have a problem with teens not on Twitter. When the collegiate and high school Facebooks merged, it seems like the quality of FB dropped (though no where near as bad quality as MySpace *shudders*).
“When the collegiate and high school Facebooks merged, it seems like the quality of FB dropped ”
I’m sorry but didn’t Facebook start off with JUST college networks?
(Or did you mean collegiate schools when you said “collegiate”?)
I’m 22years old and I started to use twitter not so long ago, but my use of it is obviously contrasting with my use of facebook..Twitter appears to be more a web tool that helps us remaining up-to-date with news from the world or at least our fields of interest, as well as maybe developing some sort of professional contacts…Facebook, on the other hand, never walked away from its core function: being a social platform which connects friends and family. Twitter seems based on sharing impersonal information when every actions done on facebook (at least from my point of view) is made to be seen by our entourage and create some sort of reaction: games are played to beat friend’s scores, videos and status are shared to be commented.
So I reckon what teens prefer in facebook is the social recognition which is engendered by every action taken, when Twitter seems more impersonal and aimed to a more “grown-up” community..(which actually correspond to the tendency of GenY to be seeking for this social recognition). The security plays for me only a small role, as details uploaded on twitter are quite little.
I realize the youths are more likely to want to share media – but it has quickly become easier to do so on twitter than through twitter. Sites such as http://www.twitpare.com make this process really easy for multiple images.
However, the privacy issue is an interesting point. It is normally the opposite – young people don’t realize the important of privacy enough!
“Facebook has a more dedicated community than Twitter, which is why teenagers want to use it.”
What? More people use Facebook but that doesn’t mean it’s a “dedicated community”. The Twitter users I know are very active and much more “dedicated” to Twitter than Facebook.
Also, teens don’t care about privacy. I think the problem with adoption of Twitter (in all age groups) is that people don’t know how to use it correctly.
I had a friend that complained about Twitter because he “didn’t give a damn what people eat for breakfast.” Then he started using Twitter, and guess what all his tweets are about?
I am now convinced that more people are posting gen y just to get my back up.
Me paranoid? Nah.
But seriously, gen y must be up there with web 2.0 in the naff name stakes.
I will find out who is responsible for this.
Hi Daniel, good points, that is what my kids are saying, they do not even want to share their status updates with me and refuse to friend their dad!
Maybe I am missing something….who cares why teens aren’t on Twitter? Do teens have to be using it to make the service “successful”. Do adults not matter at all anymore?
Give me a break. I’d rather not have feeds that silly like :OMG, did u c fRaNKie lst nite?
I’m 19.
All my friends are thinking “If I already have facebook status, why I need twitter, I don’t need to tell everyone in the world what I’m eating or where I am”.
Facebook and Twitter need to swap their “What are you doing?” and “What’s in your mind?” question, seriously.
While I’m not sure that Twitter and FB need to swap slogans, I do agree that Twitter’s tagline does it a tremendous disservice. Most of the people I follow might post an occasional obligatory “I’m having a sandwich for lunch” tweet, just to keep things a bit more personal, but the vast majority of posts have meaningful observations and/or links. I love Twitter, but not because people constantly tell me “what they’re doing now.”
Why are you listening to a 15 year old’s NON-statistic report (eg. His personal feelings/experience)!?! To consider this meaningful in any way is ridiculous. Analyzes? Give me a break. The only reason this article has gone anywhere on the net is because someone attached “Morgan Stanley” to it.
Learn to find real news and real articles. The fact that I’ve seen this so much today just goes to show why social media will never be a good, accurate account of anything.
Check Quantcast. The demographics are clear: the kids are *not* using Twitter which I think seems to surprise a lot of people.
I’ve found it beneficial that this thread started regardless if it is via a very unscientific methodology (e.g. an alleged 15 yo MS intern). The value of it is the additional commentary I have viewed via other alleged teens, former teens and older. So we are getting a better dataset, albeit informal, and unscientific, but a datatset all the same.
Unanswered questions:
—Will teens that ‘may’ favor closed garden greater capability gardens, like FB later migrate or adopt Twitter type offerings as they get a bit older, or will this generation continue to eschew it (or something similar), operating under the very unscientific assertion of the MS intern of course?
—With the many add-ons happening via Twitter, will this increasing richness entice a younger?
—Is the pay per text message, lack of more modern mobile devices(that offer a better Twitter experience) or cost factor play a role in teens not using Twitter as much(had been raised by a few)?
Col,
Finally someone stood up and questioned the validity of the findings from this mysterious teen who have shaken the confidence of any Twitter-based companies in the Web 2.0 space.
Let’s always stick to basics and find out if this report (if we can ever call it) has statistical evidence to back it up. In fact, I am still amazed that a reputable firm such as Morgan Stanley would even publish a report from a singular source and apparently without “statistical rigor”.
For the record, I am sticking my neck out and argue that Twitter is NOT a social media network. It’s a broadcasting tool for individuals to send updates on their personal interests.
Regards,
Darren
i agree completely that twitter is not a social network. however, twitter is also not a broadcasting tool for individuals.
twitter seems so clearly misunderstood. it’s no more a social platform than text messaging – which is a social platform, but not a social network.
as i said in a recent tweetfreak interview, twitter is loosely structured and asynchronous, making it, IMHO, the first universal messaging system. the content of those messages can be anything. i could, potentially, send a tweet to my house to turn the heat or lights on. my house could tweet to me that i’ve been using more electricity lately. It’s social, mobile, one to many, one to one, etc. the one thing twitter isn’t is one thing.
i agree completely that twitter is not a social network. however, twitter is also not a broadcasting tool for individuals.
twitter seems so clearly misunderstood. it’s no more a social platform than text messaging – which is a social platform, but not a social network.
as i said in my a recent tweetfreak interview, twitter is loosely structured and asynchronous, making it, IMHO, the first universal messaging system. the content of those messages can be anything. i could, potentially, send a tweet to my house to turn the heat or lights on. my house could tweet to me that i’ve been using more electricity lately. It’s social, mobile, one to many, one to one, etc. the one thing twitter isn’t is one thing.