For Young Adults, Facebook Is The New Fave
Posted by anastasia on 03-02-2007I mentioned in yesterday's slightly scattered post about Youth Power Canada that I kept hearing Facebook being talking about as growing in popularity. Today, eMarketer released research arguing that Facebook is now the top site for young adults ages 17-25. Here's my take on the Facebook phenom.
I think Facebook is going to explode with some teens as they begin to leave MySpace. What's happening is that two different types of teens are emerging in the social networking space. Teens who are all about entertainment, especially music and video will continue to remain loyal to MySpace. If you think about the site's roots, it began as a community that grew out of the L.A. music scene. Every band out there has a MySpace page now — and with MySpace Film and Video as well as its more recent connection to the FOX entertainment marketing machine, content, whether its user generated or "The Simpsons," will continue to draw these teens. MySpace is also much more about being public and achieving status — how many friends you have, who's in your top 8, what they look like, and broadcasting your message to as many people as possible.
Facebook began as a closed college networking community for Ivy League students — it always placed value on knowing people offline (on campus) as well as through Facebook. Obviously this is changing for them as they opened the network up first to high school students and now anyone. The blowback they got after they launched the newsfeed feature is an indicator that privacy (however Facebook users define it) and control are extremely important to its users. Facebook offers teens a great toolset for doing what they do online and off — socializing. And because it was for college students first, it has that aspirational cool teens love too. It's less flashy, less about being famous and more about being social.
One of the teens I interviewed for Totally Wired several months ago whose mother wouldn't let her on MySpace, told me she was over it anyway. Too much drama. She was instead lobbying her mother to let her on Facebook. I don't think she's alone. The intense media scrutiny and hysteria around MySpace and teens, as well as the real cyberdrama that has erupted when teens do bad stuff on MySpace, makes Facebook a very attractive alternative. Teens who move to Facebook may keep their MySpace profiles, they just might be less active. And some teens may be active on MySpace because of the entertainment content I mentioned above, while also being active on Facebook when it comes to socializing with their close friends.
March 2nd, 2007 at 7:27 pm
One thing to keep in mind is that Facebook/MySpace divides are becoming increasingly classed among HS teens. Many of the white, college-bound, middle/upper class teens are indeed switching to Facebook but the vast majority of teens are not.
From everything that i can tell, "Youth Trends" is tracking college students (and primarily 4-year types, not community college folks).
March 3rd, 2007 at 4:53 am
Your readers might be interested in this: http://albumoftheday.com/facebook/
:-)
DK
March 3rd, 2007 at 9:58 am
Hi danah. When you say the vast majority of teens, do you mean teens who are already online and who are using social networks? Of that number, I would love to see the percentage on Facebook now and watch to see how it grows over the next year.
I agree that Facebook will attract more collegebound teens (mostly white, but probably not all, and some international teens as well). Makes sense with its history and general vibe. It will be interesting to see if the meaning of the brand changes as it becomes more open and popular and becomes less "elitist."
I have found Tagged and Sconex to both be much more racially and economically diverse in terms of who they're attracting.
DK, thanks for the link. I was mainly pointing to the perception of greater privacy Facebook users have, not the reality.