What teens can teach us about Twitter
New research finds that more than half of internet-using teens in the US have decided not to post content online over reputation concerns.
A survey of 802 teens (12-17) conducted by Pew Research Center found that 57% of teens who are online have decided not to post something online because they were concerned it would reflect badly on them in the future.
While sports stars, celebrities, and other adults are constantly apologising for their misbehavior on Twitter and other social media platforms, the research found that younger social media users are more likely than other online teens who do not use social media to say they have refrained from sharing content due to the future impact it might have on their reputation (61% vs. 39%).
The oldest youth—online teens ages 16 and 17—are more likely than younger teens to say that they’ve decided not to post content online over concerns about how it will reflect on them; 67% of online teens ages 16-17 say they have withheld content, compared with 52% of 14-15 year-olds.
According to Pew, some teens find themselves in the role of policing or advising their friends when they post sensitive or personal information online.
“I had a friend that was always putting his personal info on Facebook, and I told him that certain info shouldn’t be shared with everyone,” on respondent said.
Another respondent described her friend’s reaction to her comment about the personal nature of her friend’s posts: “I did do that – I told someone they were sharing too much stuff, [and] they defriended me for a season.”
Twitter vs Facebook
Teen Twitter use has grown significantly, according to Pew Research Center.
“Twitter draws a far smaller crowd than Facebook for teens, but its use is rising. One in four online teens uses Twitter in some way. While overall use of social networking sites among teens has hovered around 80%, Twitter grew in popularity; 24% of online teens use Twitter, up from 16% in 2011 and 8% the first time we asked this question in late 2009,” it said.
Overall, teens have far fewer followers on Twitter when compared with Facebook friends; the typical (median) teen Facebook user has 300 friends, while the typical (median) teen Twitter user has 79 followers.
Girls and older teens tend to have substantially larger Facebook friend networks compared with boys and younger teens.
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