Why Teens Haven't Embraced Twitter…Yet
- January 28th, 2009
- 25 Comments
At CES I had an audience member ask, “Are teens on Twitter?”. A reporter asked me the same question the other day, so I figured I would elaborate on a similar post I did awhile back. While Twitter is definitely becoming integrated into our pop culture parlance—I still don’t think teens are embracing it en masse. Graham Brown from Mobile Youth had a stat claiming, “Under 25s now constitute 25% of twitter usage - the largest single age group.” If Twitter has about 6 million users, than that would be 1.5 million under 25 globally. But I wonder what percentage of that number is 13-17 vs. 18-25—I would guess that it’s still fairly low.
As long as teens can update their status via MySpace and Facebook for their friends as well as IM and text, Twitter doesn’t really add to the existing technology. In a column over at AdAge.com about why Millennials haven’t completely embraced Twitter, Kelly Eidson explains, “Millennials are already married to other platforms: We use Facebook to keep in touch with our friends, and LinkedIn to store professional contacts.” Still, even her argument about why her peers should use Twitter is more applicable to professionals working in her field than to teenagers.
That said, here is where I think Twitter is catching on with teens—following entertainment brands or celebrities and musicians. I was listening to the local rock station here in San Francisco yesterday, Live 105, when one of the DJs invited listeners to follow him on Twitter where he would give them the heads up before each ticket give away. If you’re a music fan, that’s a reason to follow. After that promotion another DJ read today’s music news leading off with an announcement Coldplay made…via Twitter. You could see how other brands could entice teens to follow them with a similar - be the first to know [or get] - message. Immediacy - what Twitter is great for. Teens who get personal branding and are deliberately trying to promote themselves as musicians, entrepreneurs, etc. (see Daniel Brusilovsky) as are teens who consider themselves techies/early adopters. Still, this is not the majority of teens or the “friendship-driven” teens who are already connected 24/7 elsewhere.
For me, Twitter is more about networking and news/industry updates. I don’t know if those are such big priorities in high school.
Perhaps they aggregate their Facebook and LinkedIn feeds through something like Friendfeed, which would start to make Twitter pretty redundant for them. But I think they will adapt to Twitter because of its simplicity and efficiency.
From one who works with young people professionally, the greatest application is for me to have daily, constant contact with them, it allows me to lead them all week long, not for just an hour here or an hour there. A further benefit is it helps to extablish networking and community among the young people I lead - which is not always natural due to the natural grouping (cliques)the occurs in kids lives.
They only embrace this when I encourage them to “sign up” for it or even help them do so. Once they’re in, they love it.
I agree that most teens do not use Twitter. My 19 year old son had never heard of it until until I told him that I started using it a few months ago. Right now, there is no reason for them to use it because for them, the Facebook status bar accomplishes the same thing. I also don’t think that they would like the idea of adults being able to follow their tweets.
I use FB, I mean - why would I update my stats on 5 diff pages when I know all my friends that matter can follow me on one site? Dunno…just sayin’.
[...] teens and their low adoption rate of Twitter. Its a good article and makes a lot of sense check out Why teens haven’t embraced Twitter…yet. One section of the article caught my eye: As long as teens can update their status via MySpace and [...]
While those of us in the workforce may use Twitter for networking and professional gain, one of the biggest upsides to Twitter is that you can make it anything you want to make it and we need to keep that in mind when considering teens. I think the author caught that idea when mentioning DJ’s using it for promotions. Many people have trouble seeing the difference between a Facebook status and a Tweet, and it really comes down to broadcasting to the world vs just your friends. When push comes to shove, most teens aren’t that interested in broadcasting their lives outside of their own social circle.
[...] just read this article, Why Teens Haven’t Embraced Twitter … Yet, and have often wondered the same thing. They are all over Facebook, can type about 100 words per [...]
[...] Why Teens Haven’t Embraced Twitter…Yet (tags: twitter youth) No TweetBacks yet. (Be the first to Tweet this post) (No Ratings Yet) Loading ... [...]
[...] Why Teens Haven’t Embraced Twitter [...]
I’m fifteen years old and I never use twitter… I think your argument on WHY kids should use twitter is invalid because all those bands and brands have been using myspace for their tours and giveaways to a much greater extent for years.
[...] “Why Teens Haven’t Embraced Twitter…Yet” Link [...]
recently heard in London: ” I’m not Twatting anything, it’s bollocks” - teen boy on the tube @ Kings Cross.
Did the developers of twitter realize that ‘twit’ (stupid)and also ‘twat’ (really, incompetently stupid, ie a**hole)are derogatory? and that ‘getting twatted’ means getting immbecile -icly drunk? from there it was only a matter of time before only twits twat on about themselves getting twatted on ‘twatter’.
[...] Alternatives: When I look at Twitter, I see it as no match for Facebook and MySpace especially when it comes to interaction, stalking your friends’ every move through pictures [...]
[...] fans to stay in school with Twitter. Before you comment on the irony given the Nielsen stats, read this) (Chicago [...]
[...] as far back as January, people were picking up on this trend. And if we look at the Quantcast numbers, we see the same [...]
Great post!
Very insightful. I think the late adoption of twitter by teens reflects a greater shift in marketing strategy. No longer do you have to have teens on the bandwagon early to start a trend.
Twitter may be the first social phenomena that wasn’t pushed initially by teens.
It will be interesting to see what happens.
For more, check out: http://www.theoceanagency.com/blog/20090806/teens-and-social-media/
[...] as far back as January, people were picking up on this trend. And if we look at the Quantcast numbers, we see the same [...]
Twitter is lame, there’s nothing more annoying then random idiotic thoughts that people have I canceled my account after 1.5 years. I followed these so called music groups or celebs just to have them tweet 30 times a days some stupid cause they’re trying to push…..Does Twitter offer anything useful?
[...] my first day with my Queens College class, there was a unanimous agreement amongst the students regarding the uselessness of Twitter. Much to their chagrin, it’s part of the syllabus. Here’s the reading for [...]
I am not a fan of twitter. I don’t really see the point of it. But I am in love with Facebook. Certainly I don’t spend hours on it, but I love to talk to my friends from my old schools.
I am a teen writer at RadicalParenting.com which is a parenting blog from the kid’s perspective there are 60 teen and tween writers run by teen author, Vanessa Van Petten. We just posted a video of “Why do Teens Use Social Networking Sites?” here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6YT6sEDZiE
and would love for you to check it out and tell us what you think or repost if you like it,
Cheers, thanks for checking it out!
G and the Teen Team
http://radicalparenting.com
Well, i’m not a twitter user myself. I see no use to use twitter when i’m already on myspace, facebook, myyearbook and a bunch of other sites. twitter is doing one part of facebook. i can updates on myspace and facebook…why why should i use twitter
One site i like though that is like twitter is teensabout.com (http://www.TeensAbout.com). It’s twitter for teens without having to deal with all the marketing and garbage going on on twitter.
Check me out on there. http://www.TeensAbout.com
[...] one writer articulated in a post on the Ypulse blog last year, “As long as teens can update their status via MySpace and Facebook for their [...]
[...] Marketing blog YPulse offered a sound explanation recently stating that, “As long as teens can update their status [...]
We are currently doing a GCSE writing assessment based on this topic in my year 10 class. we are reading a report written by someone that was published on the ‘Times’ front cover. he claimed that traditional media was dying out and that newer, more modern types of media were taking over, and that, no, teens do not use twitter. In his opinion twitter is not used by teens as it is not read by friends and is seen by them as ‘a waste of time’, we are compaing his results to ones we have collected in our local area to see if our media habbits match those of the teens in London.
:)