![]() ![]() Tweens and teens are addicted to the idea of eliciting more reactions in the form of likes, followers, and comments, he said. "We take pictures of food and landscapes," Solis said, "but teenagers use to share pictures of themselves.the more you share, the greater the reaction, and the more you push outside comfort zones, the more people react." A teen's Instagram account. Isn't it ironic, as Alanis Morissete would say, that Facebook, the onetime underground drug of choice for college kids, is now so readily available and acceptable that we all use it in broad daylight, and worse, at work? Sure, a 12-year-old skateboarder can derive some value from Facebook, but in the whitewashed kind of way that the rest of us use LinkedIn. Teens 13 and up joined Instagram, he said, because Facebook became "too great" a social network, where they're now connected to their grandparents. Yet kids found Instagram anyway, largely because their parents wouldn't let them join Facebook, argues Altimeter Group principal analyst Brian Solis. The under-13, tween crowd, including one CNET editor's daughter, technically isn't allowed to use the application, as dictated by the terms of service and a federal restriction (though the law is changing this July in ways that will make it easier for kids to join, something Facebook lobbied hard for). Definitely high on the list of priorities for us. It is very important for Facebook to build products that are useful to those users, and to build products that they feel comfortable.they can have a good experience with. What we do know is that Instagram is already a very popular service that continues to grow rapidly, and we believe, based on the information that we have, that it's quite popular among these kinds of users that you're asking about, the younger generation. Which seems odd until you realize that the profit-hungry Facebook isn't yet making a dime from Instagram. Then, earlier this week, Chief Financial Officer David Ebersman admitted that Instagram, an application he described as popular among the "younger generation," is a "formidable competitor" to Facebook. When it filed its annual report, it warned investors for the first time that younger users are turning to other services, particularly Instagram, as a substitute for Facebook. In recent weeks, Facebook has told us on two occasions about its teen-appeal problem. But we know - from observing teens, talking to parents and analysts, and from a few company statements - that age doesn't become Facebook with this group. ![]() There's no hard-and-fast data that quantifies Facebook's teen problem. Facebook, meanwhile, with its Harvard dorm room roots, now finds itself scrambling to keep up with the tastes of the youngest trendsetters - even as it has its hooks in millions of them since it now owns Instagram.Īsked about the issue, a Facebook representative would say only, "We are gratified that more than 1 billion people, including many young people, are using Facebook, to connect and share." Around schools, kids treat these apps like pot, enjoyed in low-lit corners, and all for the undeniable pleasure and temporary fulfillment of feeling cool. Their world revolves around Instagram, the application adults mistook for an elevated photography service, and other apps decidedly less old-fashioned than Mark Zuckerberg's social network.Īnd therein lies one of Facebook's biggest challenges: With more than 1 billion users worldwide and an unstated mission to make more money, Facebook has become a social network that's often too complicated, too risky, and, above all, too overrun by parents to give teens the type of digital freedom or release they crave.įor tweens and teens, Instagram - and, more recently, SnapChat, an app for sending photos and videos that appear and then disappear - is the opposite of Facebook: simple, seemingly secret, and fun. To understand where teens like to spend their virtual time nowadays, just watch them on their smartphones. ![]()
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