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Instagram Tops Teen Social Media, Facebook Fades

*The following is excerpted from an online article from ARC.

A semi-annual study of 9,400 teenagers with an average age of 16 by investment bank Piper Jaffray found that teens either don’t use Facebook or see other social networks as far more relevant to their digital lifestyles. Around 33% of respondents to the Taking Stock of Teens survey said that Instagram was the most important followed by Twitter and Snapchat with 20% and 19% respectively.

Teens have also embraced content streaming in terms of TV consumption, the Piper Jaffray study said. Netflix is used by 38% of teens, as opposed to 29% who prefer traditional cable television. YouTube and Hulu and other streaming services are accessed by 21%, and 4% and 8% of teens respectively and outstrip those who consume content from cable providers.

Teens are the perfect demographic for understanding and assessing the impact of the changing media landscape. Digital analysts will often point to Millennials as a good base for appreciating the advances that have been made but as more children become comfortable with technology available then it becomes important to look for the next generation of social media users. The problem with Facebook is that it has become part of the establishment.

For teenagers, Facebook is seen to be the social media site that their parents and other generations use. This has been the case for some time and there have been numerous articles and discussions devoted not just to why that has happened but also how it can be less … old. Facebook still has a high penetration rate among teens. Despite the results of this latest study, 71% of teens who were recently interviewed by Pew Research said that Facebook was just one of a number of social media tools that they accessed.

Instagram—which was bought by Facebook in 2012—and Snapchat have taken Facebook’s uncool factor and turned it to their advantage. Snapchat is cool because it sends pictures and updates that appear and vanish. Instagram has thousands of celebrities and “role models” posting constant updates on their must-have lifestyles, many of which are widely publicized in teen-friendly media.

Source: ARC
http://arc.applause.com/2015/10/19/facebook-teen-usage-rate/