A study has begun to discover how Facebook is viewed by adults vs. how Facebook is viewed by teens. Although it would be assumed that Facebook would be discussed as a more positive outlet by teens, it is actually reversed. Adults have come out with higher percentages of having a positive view of Facebook for a resource of social networking whether it be for reconnecting with old high school friends, or keeping in touch with distant family members, they think it is a wonderful source with many positive uses. Teens on the other hand have come out with a more negative view of the website and have shared more negative outcomes due to the website as oppose to positive. They have higher percentages of experiencing bullying, job conflicts, school rejections, and ends to relationships. Teens report that the website makes them feel bad about themselves more than good whereas adults claim the have had more good feelings about themselves and their lives. This survey could be a small detection of a future drop off of Facebook users that are teens and its user majority could possibly turn into primarily adult aged people.
Speaking as a teen, I personally have seen a huge drop off of teen users already from Facebook and a large conversion to Twitter. Although Facebook has its positives and negatives, I think teens simply become bored and are always looking for new things. No matter how many updates a social network may make, teens are always looking for something cooler, newer, and preferably undiscovered. Unfortunately, bullying may never have an end brought to it no matter what social network is created, but depanding on how big of an issue it becomes it could play a major role in the popularity of a site increasing the demand for access to the network.
3 comments:
Brittany I completely agree with you. Teenagers are always looking for the next best thing and Facebook has just started to make life harder than easier for some. Not only is there drama with friends, there is cyber bullying when it comes to teens and social networking sites. Posting on these types of sites can cause stress on the teens that are constantly on them. The Internet and teens don't always combine for the better like these sites. These sites cause teens to become mentally unstable and try to harm themselves because they try to be in the "cool" group. Teens just need to learn to use these sites for better uses like the adults do. Connecting with friends and family who live far away it a better use of their time that updating their status of what they had done every second of that day.
This is kind of ironic because when Facebook first got going, it was only for college students and older; People mature enough to handle the costs of putting your social life online. And then to increase users and advertising revenue, Facebook opened up to anyone and everyone that had access to a computer, or a phone for that matter. Thats when things started getting out of hand and Facebook started getting old. Viruses were written, and spam was out of control. Opening up Facebook to these millions of teen users probably did more damage then good. That's when you started hearing about the bullying and the privacy issues. And the article says that teens don't like it because it affects job offers and college acceptances... don't put stupid stuff on the internet for everyone to see?
And now that people are starting to blame Facebook for their immature decisions, it's starting to devolve back to what and who it was originally used for; older, more responsible, people. Just wait, Twitter will have it's day too...
Nice piece on the shift in social media, and I especially appreciate how you tied it into “demand” near the end.
Did you know Facebook is about to go public? And for $5 Billion? That’s more than Google almost a decade ago. The times are certainly changing, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that “The Book” is losing site visits. The popularity lost in the younger generations is being recaptured not only in adults, but also on a more global context. I have family in developing countries that are just getting into the whole Facebook craze. While that should peak in several years (international use and acclaim), that’s not to say social media will drift into nothingness. Microsoft currently has a very large stake in Facebook, and we can guarantee they’ll play a big role in future R&D as Zuckerburgland hits the SEC. Now think about it: Microsoft owns MSN.com, who’s in partnership with NBC for their news outlets. An interesting monopoly would form if Microsoft was ever ambitious enough to combine their media ties with the “online living” people are adapting to, as well as online gaming companies like Zynga (think words with ______ or Mafia Wars) with the Xbox console… and we could see one of the most impressive closed products to consumer cycles in recent years.
Of course, that’s all beside your points, Brittney. My thoughts on the whole ‘Adult vs. Teen,’ Facebook vs. Twitter situation is that kids, generally, want to avoid the interests of the older generations. They’re all squares, right? As the adults begin to utilize Facebook for connection and business growth, the kids will have a mass exodus to Twitter, where it’s all about the ego. Every post, every tweet, is just an ego-feeding mess. We can keep up with celebrities, we can repost what we want, and we can follow who we like.
I think that’s over 140 characters, but like, whatever, you know?
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