Teenagers on Twitter – Teens don’t tweet
By Dave Parrack
Do you have a Twitter account yet? More and more people are turning to Twitter every day as they try out the new social networking craze that even grabbed Oprah’s attention a few months ago. But while it was assumed all ages were interested, it seems teenagers may not be quite so taken with tweeting.
Twitter has made huge headway over the past two years in becoming the breakout social networking tool to counter Facebook. In fact, Facebook liked the concept so much it first tried to buy Twitter and then when that failed, copied it instead.
Twitter is now definitely mainstream. Maybe not as mainstream as Facebook, which almost everyone I know uses, but mainstream nonetheless. Yes, the inevitable has happened, people I know in real life have started following me on Twitter. Which is always a sign that a service has finally broken through.
However, according to a teenager’s research note to Morgan Stanley, teenagers just aren’t interested in Twitter. They maybe like the idea, and with peer pressure being what it is sign up for an account, but that’s about as far as most go.
According to The Guardian, Matthew Robson, an intern from a London school wrote:
Teenagers do not use Twitter. Most have signed up to the service, but then just leave it as they realize that they are not going to update it (mostly because texting Twitter uses up credit, and they would rather text friends with that credit). They realize that no one is viewing their profile, so their tweets are pointless.
While that’s a fair point, it is merely circumstantial evidence. What Robson and his friends clearly don’t seem to realize is that Twitter isn’t only accessible by mobile phone, with updates able to be posted and read on the Web. So there’s really no need for using up that valuable credit.
It’s an interesting point though, which is why Morgan Stanley decided to publish Robson’s thoughts on Twitter and other forms of new media and entertainment.
Twitter is much more about connecting with new and unknown people than Facebook is, which more caters for people connecting with existing friends. Making connections with strangers is clearly something which doesn’t appeal to most teenagers, which in the case of the young ones is probably a very good thing.
Related:
Entry was posted
on Tuesday, July 14th, 2009 at 2:50 am
under
Read more entries by Dave Parrack.
Stumble It!
July 14th, 2009
Perhaps teenagers are finally cottoning onto the fact that connecting with strangers via the net isn’t necessarily all that safe…?
July 14th, 2009
Next we’ll be hearing the banking crisis started after Morgan Stanley issued a briefing note from a 10-year-old boy who’d been refused tuppence to feed the birds.