Teens Have Lost Interest in Facebook Over the Past 6 Months

Is Facebook losing its stranglehold over young social media users? According to some data from an bi-annual survey, the answer is yes. And it’s not that social media in general is losing its coo...
Teens Have Lost Interest in Facebook Over the Past 6 Months
Written by Josh Wolford

Is Facebook losing its stranglehold over young social media users? According to some data from an bi-annual survey, the answer is yes. And it’s not that social media in general is losing its cool factor, it’s that other networks like Twitter and even Instagram (owned by Facebook, of course) are stealing Facebook’s mojo.

The data comes from Piper Jaffray’s 25th bi-annual “Taking Stock with Teens” survey that looks at everything from online shopping and fashion, to tech, social, and gaming.

The survey looked at which social networks are the “most important” for teens. It found that Facebook still holds the top spot – but barely. And it’s been declining over the past year.

Facebook is the most important social network for 33% of the teens surveyed, which is down 9% from 42% back in the Fall of 2012 (the last time this survey was published).

Twitter, on the other hand, saw an increase from 27% to 30% in teens claiming it as the most important social site in their lives. Instagram, which is owned by Facebook but has stayed independent, grew in popularity from 12% to 17%.

Watch out Facebook, Twitter is nearly as important to teens as you.

The only other significant change in social media loyalty among teens in the past few months is in the “other” category. Piper Jaffray notes that the top 5 “write-in” picks for most important social media service were Wanelo, Snapchat, 4chan, Kik, and Twitter’s just-launched six-second video app Vine.

Another interesting find from Piper Jaffray’s survey: Teens still love their iPhones. Nearly half (48%) of those surveyed said that they already own an iPhone (up from 40% in the Fall) and 62% said that they plan on buying the iPhone as their next device. Compare that with Android, which had 23% of teens expressing future desire.

[Image via toodlepip, Flickr]

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