Only 14% blog and 8% tweet. 73% use social networks. Speaking of Twitter, a Pew researcher commented
that teens may have a "reluctance to put their thoughts on such a
public forum when they can post them to their Facebook page instead".
Didn't Mark Zuckerberg announced the end of privacy? The study released this week by the Pew
Internet and American Life project also found that fewer than one in 10
teens were using Twitter, a surprising finding given overall popularity
of the micro-blogging site.
According
to the report, only 14 percent of teenagers who use the Internet say
they kept an online journal or blog, compared with a peak of 28 percent
in 2006 -- and only 8 percent were using Twitter.
"It
was a little bit surprising, although there are definitely explanations
given the state of the technological landscape," Pew researcher Aaron
Smith told Reuters.
Smith said the
report's authors attributed the decline in blogging to the explosion of
social networking sites such as Facebook, which emphasize short status
updates over personal journals.
According to the study, 73 percent of teens who were online used social networking sites.
He
also cited the ubiquity of cell phones. Much of the communication
between young people now takes place on mobile devices, which don't
lend themselves to long-form writing.
He
said teens may be shying away from Twitter because they see it as
designed for celebrities, and because of reluctance to put their
thoughts on such a public forum when they can post them to their
Facebook page instead.
He said teens may be shying away from Twitter
because they see it as designed for celebrities, and because of
reluctance to put their thoughts on such a public forum when they can
post them to their Facebook page instead.
"It
was somewhat interesting in the sense that teens tend to be the early
adopters," Smith said. "They were the first to use social networking
and texting. Its certainly unusual compared to what we've seen with
other technology."
Blogging among
adults has held steady since 2005, Pew found, but it has dropped among
Internet users between the age of 18 and 29 -- while rising in those
over 30.
"Older people are
becoming more comfortable with the online environment and young people
in the meantime have moved on to social networking and text messaging,"
Smith said.
The teen portion of
the study was based on a telephone survey of 800 people, aged 12 to 17,
that was conducted from June to September of 2009.
Note: this post draws on material that the poster obtained from Reuters source and from Pew that can be accessed via provided link. ed.
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