More US teens migrate to Twitter
Twitter is booming as
a social media destination for U.S. teenagers who complain about too many
adults and too much drama on Facebook, according to a new study about online
behavior. It said teens are sharing more personal information about themselves
even as they try to protect their online reputations. "The key is that
there are fewer adults, fewer parents and just simply less complexity,"
said Amanda Lenhart of the Pew Research Center, one of the study's authors.
"They still have their Facebook profiles, but they spend less time on them
and move to places like Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr."
The study was
released Tuesday. In the poll, 94 percent of teens who are social media users
have a profile on Facebook - flat from the previous year. Twenty-six percent of
teen social media users were on Twitter. That's more than double the figure in
2011 of 12 percent. "Facebook just really seems to have more drama,"
said 16-year-old Jaime Esquivel in an interview. Esquivel said he still checks
his Facebook account daily but isn't using it as regularly. He sees teens
complaining on Twitter, too, so Esquivel has been using the photo-sharing
service Instagram more often, posting a couple of pictures each day and
communicating with friends. Facebook purchased Instagram last year.
In what may be a
concern to parents, more than 60 percent of the teens with Twitter accounts
said their tweets were public, meaning anyone on Twitter - friend, foe or
stranger - can see what they write and publish. About one-quarter of kids said
their tweets were private, and 12 percent said they did not know whether their
tweets were public or private. Teens are also sharing much more than in the
past.
More than 90 percent
of teen social media users said they have posted a picture of themselves - up
from 79 percent in 2006, the poll said. Seven in 10 disclose the city or town
where they live, up from about 60 percent over the same time period. And 20
percent disclose their cell phone number - up sharply from 2 percent in 2006. Even
so, Parry Aftab, an attorney and online child safety advocate, said kids seem
to be exercising more caution about their posts.
"They are
sharing. This is their life," Aftab said in an interview. "But they
tend to be sharing personal stuff far better than they ever did before." The
poll suggested teens are also taking steps to protect their reputations and
mask information they don't want others to see. For example, nearly 60 percent
of teen social media users said they have deleted or edited something that they
had published. Just over half the teens have deleted comments from others on
their profile or account. The researchers surveyed 802 parents and their 802
teens. The poll was conducted between July 26 and September 30, 2012, on
landline and cell phones. The margin of error for the full sample is plus or
minus 4.5 percentage points.
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