Update Aug 5, 2009, 8:19PM EST — I suppose it’s worth noting that this post offers a series of possible explanations as to why the recent boom of Twitter registrations in 2009 consists of a very small percentage of teenagers. Just hypotheses.
PS, if you look at the chart below, you’d see the category we’re discussing is being called “Teens” but is actually ages 2-24. I’m 23. Take it for what it’s worth. Teenage Tweeters: Don’t take it personally :)
Teens prefer to use Facebook and MySpace over Twitter because those two social networking platforms allow users to forge, establish, and publicly display a customized individual identity.
It would appear to be more important to younger internet users who are growing into adulthood and still developing an understanding of who they truly “are.”
Twitter, on the other hand, is more time consuming, interest-based, and requires a certain etiquette (see below).
The discussion on Why Teens Don’t Tweet stems from a recent Neislen report that shows Teens don’t use Twitter. Their findings have since gone viral, thanks largely to a posting today at Mashable.com:
“…Nielsen has compiled data from its NetRatings panel of 250,000 US Internet users and discovered that there are fewer young people on Twitter than on the Internet as a whole: one quarter of US Internet users are under 25, Nielsen says, but only 16% of Twitter users lie in that age range. …”
Mashable’s Pete Cashmore subsequently asks, “Why are teens Twitter shy?
The answer?
Teens are more inclined to use MySpace and Facebook because of their highly customizable, profile-based networks that help publicly forge (and, thus, “validate”) a youth’s identity.
MySpace is fully customizable and the user can select color schemes, graphics, pictures, and incorporate music to one’s profile. Facebook is limited to a mostly text-based layout.
However, consider their similarity in that both MySpace and Facebook enable users to create customized profiles. MySpace and Facebook profiles show users’ profile pictures, picture and video albums, favorite movies/books/television shows, hobbies, interests, addresses, schools attended, birthdates, and so on.
Creating a profile on MySpace and Facebook enables the user to publicly define who they are to — not just friends and family — but the greater world.
With that said, here’s my opinion on Why Teens Don’t Tweet:
Time Consuming
On Twitter, one forges contacts and relationships in a nitty-gritty fashion: by routinely interacting with other users based upon short, 140 character messages. The Twitter time-investment is two-fold: Twitter requires that you invest a significant amount of time tweeting about yourself and your interests (so that your contacts learn about who you are), and reading other peoples tweets (so you get to know your contacts).
With MySpace and Facebook, the only time requirement is upfront in the creation of one’s customizable profile.
Interest-Based
Twitter users are often drawn to each other based upon similar professions, hobbies or interests. My contacts tend to be comprised exclusively of writers, authors, those in the publishing industry, graphics designers, web developers, web entrepreneurs, and internet marketing strategists. It’s no coincidence that I share many similar interests with everyone in those specific social circles.
Meeting people based upon interests on Facebook and MySpace tends to be considered a social faux-pas, if only peculiar and off-putting because the user is willingly sharing a significant amount of the personal information (phone numbers, addresses, schools attended, cities/towns/locations, etc.) with complete strangers.
Twitter alleviates that concern by only displaying a user’s name, general location, website, and a short 140-character biography.
Twitter Etiquette
For a user to utilize Twitter to its maximum potential, one is required to follow a certain etiquette, or be thrown by the wayside. Twitter rules and ediquette span Follow/Follow Back, Retweeting, Spam, Self-Promotion, Flaming, Followers Counts, etc. Facebook and MySpace are less interaction-based and are almost exclusively profile-based. Thus, rules and etiquette are largely obsolete.
To conclude, Twitter requires a heavy time investment, social ediquette, and the necessity of patiently forging friendships and relationships with others who share similar professional/personal interests. Perhaps Twitter is simply more applicable to a more mature internet-user audience?
MySpace and Facebook are largely devoid of these requirements and are seen as explicitly more expressive of the user because of their highly customizable profile-based network, which appeals directly to youth and teens, who generally are interested in forging self-identity.
Again, remember that these are my theories for possible explanations. Don’t get worked up: it’s only Twitter.
Either way, if you agree or disagree please leave a comment!
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Good post! The customization issue is huge for teens. Twitter can seem boring because it can take a sustained period of tweeting to develop a clear pattern of interests in a user's tweetcloud.
yaaa… no. i tweet all the time and im a teen
I'm a teen, and I prefer Twitter over Facebook or Myspace. The majority of my “friends” don't bother looking at my profile, since they already know me. We usually talk about random stuff on Twitter, because it's fast and easy. That's why I like it- I don't have to worry about a long blog post, bulliten, or the likes. It irritates me how everyone likes to use one stereotype to describe the teen population as a whole like this. Some of us are different.
Personally, as a teenager who doesn't use twitter with many friends who do, I disagree. I think it's more that myspace and facebook have been more popular for longer thus it's obvious more people will be using them at the moment. Also, since twitter has become popular after lots of social-networking sites (like facebook, bebo, myspace etc.) have, twitter could be seen as yet another site people have to join; they maybe just can't be bothered with joining it if they already have accounts on other sites. That's the situation for me at least – I have nothing against tweeter and if anything it seems easier to follow what people are doing than on fb or myspace. As for myself? I have a myspace I go on maybe once a year, and facebook that I use constantly. I may get a twitter in the future, who knows?
I'm a teen, and I love tweeting. It's so much more effective than Myspace. A lot of my friends have accounts on websites like that, but they seem insecure. And I have heard too many bad things about Myspace. Twitter is based on developing slow friendships with people you choose, and letting them get to know over a long period of time. It's hard to fake an identity on Twitter, which is why I like it. If I ever accquired a Myspace account, it would onl be to practice HTML formatting and stay in touch with my friends. I get to do that on Twitter safely, and pick my friends. I feel more secure on Twitter. Great post, and nice research. I hope you get to fulfill your dream of becoming an author.
I'm a teen, I have a twitter, and I think this is stupid. Lol,
Here's another great example of a Non-teen,
Trying to show what Teens think.
Just saying how stupid you are for trying to see through a Teen's Eyes, when… You obviously aren't.
Just my opinion.
i tweet.. and my page is customized. haha
@Alyssa – I agree with you! MySpace and Facebook reveal maybe “too much” info to strangers and it makes users less likely to “risk” meeting new people. Thanks so much for your comment!
@Rachel – Valid points. Nielsen looked at the recent “boom” of new Twitter users and discovered that many new users were not teens. It may be a matter of comfort or not understanding what hte point is of signing up for *another* social networking website. Thanks for the comment :)
@Erin – Thanks for commenting. I don't think people are intending to stereotype teens — at least, I think what we're discussing implies why many teenage internet users do not use Twitter, rather than making an unfair judgment against teenagers. Personally, I'm just 4 years away from having been a teenager and I actually place within the age bracket of most people who “don't” use Twitter!
@Sym – I realize that teens do actually use Twitter :) They make up a very small percentage of Twitter users. The question is why. Above is my hypothesis :) Thanks for commenting!
So, through a teen's eyes, I would see a differing opinion as “stupid”? :) Thanks for commenting with your opinion.
This is very obvious, Twitter was dominated by Marketing and Media professionals before any other group, thereby, the socialites who normally use facebook or myspace to express themselves to other socialites, deem twitter useless.
Good post! The customization issue is huge for teens. Twitter can seem boring because it can take a sustained period of tweeting to develop a clear pattern of interests in a user's tweetcloud.
yaaa… no. i tweet all the time and im a teen
I'm a teen, and I prefer Twitter over Facebook or Myspace. The majority of my “friends” don't bother looking at my profile, since they already know me. We usually talk about random stuff on Twitter, because it's fast and easy. That's why I like it- I don't have to worry about a long blog post, bulliten, or the likes. It irritates me how everyone likes to use one stereotype to describe the teen population as a whole like this. Some of us are different.
Personally, as a teenager who doesn't use twitter with many friends who do, I disagree. I think it's more that myspace and facebook have been more popular for longer thus it's obvious more people will be using them at the moment. Also, since twitter has become popular after lots of social-networking sites (like facebook, bebo, myspace etc.) have, twitter could be seen as yet another site people have to join; they maybe just can't be bothered with joining it if they already have accounts on other sites. That's the situation for me at least – I have nothing against tweeter and if anything it seems easier to follow what people are doing than on fb or myspace. As for myself? I have a myspace I go on maybe once a year, and facebook that I use constantly. I may get a twitter in the future, who knows?
I'm a teen, and I love tweeting. It's so much more effective than Myspace. A lot of my friends have accounts on websites like that, but they seem insecure. And I have heard too many bad things about Myspace. Twitter is based on developing slow friendships with people you choose, and letting them get to know over a long period of time. It's hard to fake an identity on Twitter, which is why I like it. If I ever accquired a Myspace account, it would onl be to practice HTML formatting and stay in touch with my friends. I get to do that on Twitter safely, and pick my friends. I feel more secure on Twitter. Great post, and nice research. I hope you get to fulfill your dream of becoming an author.
I'm a teen, I have a twitter, and I think this is stupid. Lol,
Here's another great example of a Non-teen,
Trying to show what Teens think.
Just saying how stupid you are for trying to see through a Teen's Eyes, when… You obviously aren't.
Just my opinion.
i tweet.. and my page is customized. haha
@Alyssa – I agree with you! MySpace and Facebook reveal maybe “too much” info to strangers and it makes users less likely to “risk” meeting new people. Thanks so much for your comment!
@Rachel – Valid points. Nielsen looked at the recent “boom” of new Twitter users and discovered that many new users were not teens. It may be a matter of comfort or not understanding what hte point is of signing up for *another* social networking website. Thanks for the comment :)
@Erin – Thanks for commenting. I don't think people are intending to stereotype teens — at least, I think what we're discussing implies why many teenage internet users do not use Twitter, rather than making an unfair judgment against teenagers. Personally, I'm just 4 years away from having been a teenager and I actually place within the age bracket of most people who “don't” use Twitter!
@Sym – I realize that teens do actually use Twitter :) They make up a very small percentage of Twitter users. The question is why. Above is my hypothesis :) Thanks for commenting!
So, through a teen's eyes, I would see a differing opinion as “stupid”? :) Thanks for commenting with your opinion.
This is very obvious, Twitter was dominated by Marketing and Media professionals before any other group, thereby, the socialites who normally use facebook or myspace to express themselves to other socialites, deem twitter useless.