It’s easy to say that teens are not quite as interested in Facebook as they were a couple of years back. Between the need to separate themselves from a network where their parents are on, and the advent of newer, trendier networks, it’s clear that their interests lie elsewhere more so. Does this necessary mean that Facebook is out of the eye of a younger demographic for good? According to a recent study, this does not appear to be the case.
On Tuesday, GlobalWebIndex released its social report and it seems as though particular trends have been seen as of late. Instagram, for example, has seen major growth and the same can be h for the mobile side of things as well. One would imagine that, because of these levels of expansion, Facebook would be hindered. However, Facebook – even though altered in some regards – still remains at the top of the social media agency food chain.
This is not to say that there aren’t issues when it comes to the level of appeal towards a more youthful audience. According to iStrategyLabs, 25% fewer teens in the United States are using Facebook than they did in 2011. It’s easy to see why, as teens are keen to look less at established platforms such as Twitter and more so at platforms that are relatively new like Pinterest. When an entity presents itself as unique from what was previous available, it goes without saying that it will draw attention.
That being said, the news given by iStrategyLabs might not have been entirely accurate. While there was a drop-off in terms of Facebook teen usage, the findings from GWI determined that the aforementioned audience only diminished two percentage points. What this means is that the estimated loss of 34.19 million, while substantial to the naked eye, is not terrible for a great platform like Facebook. The loss is clear but it’s not one that will spell the doom of the network at large.
If anything, this news shows that teens are not so much abandoning what has been already established but rather testing out the newest toys of sorts. As effective as Facebook can be for communication, amongst other purposes, this does not mean that people should limit themselves. To put this in perspective, many people enjoy apples but no one is going to want to eat apples alone. Instead, they’re going to want to turn to other fruit; an entity like Instagram could be the best orange.