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If we were to believe the latest news about Facebook, we would think the giant company is losing its touch among the teenage demographic. But, apparently, Facebook need not panic yet, because according to a new survey, it is still the most accessed social networking platform among teenagers.
The Pew Research Center has recently conducted a survey, revealing that still over 70 percent of the teen responders are using Facebook frequently, and over 40 percent of the same participants access Facebook the most, when compared to how much they use other social media sites.
To no one’s surprise, Instagram, owned by Facebook as well, ranked second in the contest of most popular social networking sites. From the total number of more than 1,000 teen responders, 52 percent reported frequently using the site.
Next in the line on the popular social websites list is Snapchat (41 percent), followed by a big surprise: Twitter and Google Plus – which was not welcomed very well on the internet – were tied at 33 percent. Lower stats were given for Vine (24 percent) and Tumblr (14 percent).
If you’re wondering why social media sites have gained such traction among teenagers, look no further. Their popularity has increased steadily along with access to smartphones – also reported during the survey. Only a quarter of the teen responders said they did not own a smartphone, and 24 percent of those who did, admitted that they go online on a regular basis.
Lead author Amanda Lenhart, the associate director for Research at the Pew Research Center, said that easier access to smartphones has made a huge impact on American teens – especially African-American youth – and they have gladly embraced the opportunity to be connected 24/7 to people and information.
The survey also studied the gender differences in the usage of social media. Surprisingly, boys are more inclined to Facebook than girls (45% of boys vs. 36% of girls); on the other hand, more visually-oriented websites, such as Instagram are more heavily used by girls than boys (23% of girls against 17% of boys).
For the older teens, Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat turned out to be the most used media platforms. Instagram was more appealing to younger teens. It was also interesting to connect the socio-economic status to the various choices in social media activity.
For example, teens from middle and upper income families turned out to use Snapchat a lot more than those who come from families in the lower income group – just like Twitter, which is also more popular among teens from richer families. It was discovered that Facebook was the first option of social websites among teenagers from families with lower income.
Image Source: Government Technology
