The 'Ps' On Facebook & Youth Social Networking Fatigue
Posted by anastasia on 04-02-2009danah boyd posted a provocative "tweet" the other day which also appeared on her Facebook status:
"I wish I knew how to measure passionate user engagement. No one believes me when I argue that FB passion among youth is fading."
A bunch of folks (including me) began to comment and speculate about where the love has gone as well as where teens might go (short answer: they haven't gone to any one new site or space just yet). I feel like we've been talking about youth social networking fatigue on and off for awhile, and really, given that they were the early adopters of these sites, it makes sense.
Marketers often talk about youth as being a fickle audience with ever changing tastes and loyalties, and perhaps that's what we're seeing with social networking, but I think there are a bunch of other reasons why the passion may be fading.
Too much drama. I've heard this countless times from teens, especially on MySpace. Someone posts something about someone else, that person finds out, gets angry and drama ensues. And that's just the most basic plot — with breakups and makeups happening in comments, the reality that virtual communication often gets misinterpreted, cyberbullying, etc., a lot of teens who have been involved in the drama want out.
It's not their space anymore. danah alluded to this at SXSW when she noted that for teens who are closely monitored at home, the internet (and social networks) felt like a private space away from controlling parents/adults. Once MySpace was discovered by parents, teachers, cops and adults in general looking to bust parties, find inappropriate content, etc., this "place for friends" suddenly became another place where adults were asserting authority over teens. With Facebook, it seems to be less about busting teens (though that goes on, too) and more about being mortified by parents attempting to friend teens and teens having to watch mom and her old boyfriend from high school catch up wall-to-wall. These are no longer secret/public spaces for youth to hang out and adults to "keep out"…
Still "keeping it real." According to this study from OTX Research, "Traditional activities such as hanging out with friends, listening to music, and seeing boy/girlfriends dominate the top three favorite pastimes of young people." Yes, they are using digital technology to enhance these relationships, but they still crave face-to-face interactions. Like anything new, youth (and the rest of us) might spend a lot of time on social networks when we first join, but after awhile, the initial thrill is gone. It becomes more utilitarian — a place to coordinate, quickly catch up, share photos, vs. a virtual place to hang out, chat, etc. And for teens and college students with more freedom, cars, etc. the call of "in real life" is even louder than for the countless tweens under 13 who are at home on computers bored stiff and lying about their age to hang out on these sites.
It may be that teens aren't necessarily going somewhere else; they’re just spending less time on social networks and more time socializing in real life, texting, etc. Perhaps once smartphones and data plans become even more affordable and widespread amongst teens, that's where they'll go or be. But for now, social networks are becoming just one more communication tool in teens' digital arsenal.
Categorized under: Web
April 3rd, 2009 at 7:12 am
I did a comparative analysis on youth and the web in 1999, ages 16-21, and found the above to be true back then. Most young people between 16 and 21 prefered to 'hang out' in person and only used the web as a secondary source for hanging out. Anyone who tried to do online community for that age group in the 90s and early 2000s didn't have a reliable biz model and many failed miserably. That "keeping it real" factor is a BIG ONE. And I sure wouldn't have wanted my parents hanging out in my offline space let alone my online space. The more things change, the more they stay the same :)
April 3rd, 2009 at 9:14 am
[...] and other same-box-new-wrapping social networks with the same zest they did several years ago. Anastasia Goodstein at Ypulse dug a bit deeper into the dwindling flame of passion between kids and … saying, "A bunch of folks (including me) began to comment and speculate about where the [...]
April 3rd, 2009 at 9:14 am
You are right on! Facebook has gone from novelty to normalcy among early adopters, and kids regular ask us for something more from their online experiences. (We also have the answer to their request!)
http://oneseventeenmedia.wordpress.com/2009/04/03/youth-bored-with-current-social-networks/
April 4th, 2009 at 11:10 am
[...] The ‘Ps’ On Facebook & Youth Social Networking Fatigue [...]
April 6th, 2009 at 8:53 am
[...] became inspired to blog after reading a post on YPulse about “Youth Social Networking Fatigue”, which outlines why teens are falling out of love with Facebook and other social sites. One [...]
April 8th, 2009 at 9:23 am
I blogged about this exact issue just recently:
Does Gen Y Know Something We Don't?
Something is definitely up. I would love for someone to do an exhaustive study on social media fatigue and whether teens and Gen Y are early-adopters in this as well. My gut tells me that what we are now seeing with younger demos will hit the older ones within one-to-two years once the novelty wears off and the noise becomes too much.
April 8th, 2009 at 7:18 pm
[...] light of some other blog posts that are coming out. Among others, Anastasia Goodstein writes about Facebook and youth social networking fatigue, Libby Issendorf says that gen Y lost that loving feeling for Facebook, and Adam McLanes writes [...]
April 8th, 2009 at 10:49 pm
Funny, I was interviewing some young teens who still 'prefer MySpace because it's more fun' and have segued to Facebook because 'all our friends keep moving there' and the general sentiment seems to be 'what's the big deal w/FB, or even, it's 'boring' and some pointblank saying, 'I'll stay on MS cuz no way am I gonna be in the same zone as my parents'…
I also recently OVERheard a heated conversation about this between two 14 year olds (one 'friends' their family, the other thinks that's "messed up") and the interesting twist was the reasoning, "Say you friend my mom, then she can access ME through YOU and that's just not right."
(I actually don't think she can, she can see the list of friends/status lines, but not the full profile)
Still, it points to the desperate need for a 'teen space' to just 'be.'
And I empathize with them…No eagle eyes and helicopter hovering to tongue wag about language or gossip. No 'tmi' oopsie moments wreaking havoc. As I often tell parent peers, "Just because you CAN, doesn't mean you SHOULD." ;-)
In daylight hours, I'm also seeing more desire for F2F contact even among YOUNGER teens (sans wheels) e.g. "meet you downtown, or bike to the park" kind of thing…but by night they're back on the keyboards for a friend fix w/their pals.
http://www.ShapingYouth.org
April 10th, 2009 at 5:38 pm
Facebook has lost its magic because it betrayed its original proposition: a space for college kids to exchange information with friends. By segregating peer groups, sites like My Yearbook and Facebook created an exclusivity aura similar to the 'best' clubs in LA and New York City, giving them a leg up on their competition. Now that the site is open to everyone however, it has lost the very thing that separated it from the multitude of MySpace-like sites.
I also think that social networking is fragmenting towards niche sites which can actually offer users privacy and the ability to build stronger bonds between members since the sites are more focused. While sites like Facebook will always have a place, they will not be as dominant as they are today.
April 13th, 2009 at 5:30 am
Online Usage Changing Millennial Brains?…
We always hear that Millennials are different, and that their constant online interaction is changing the very way they interact. However, I do not know if I believe all of the hype. While older generations may not understand Gen Ys methods, t…
July 22nd, 2009 at 11:06 am
[...] there has been a degree of "white flight" among youth from MySpace to Facebook, I also believe that growing youth Facebook fatigue, combined with a new and improved MySpace could bring some younger Facebook users, especially those [...]