For Twitter, The Kids Aren’t Alright
Just 11 per cent of Twitter users are aged 12 to 17, reports the New York Times (via Comscore).
Silicon Alley Insider writes about a ‘veteran venture capitalist’ being overheard saying that, “Twitter had better sell out before it’s too late. Young people don’t like Twitter. My kids think Twitter’s bullshit.”
Earlier this year, Morgan Stanley unveiled the research of a 15-year old who suggested that while teenagers were ‘consuming social media’, they were ignoring Twitter.
Meantime, use of social media by adults in the 35 to 64 demographic grew 60 per cent in the last year.
This is all great news.
The reason why Facebook and Bebo are popular with kids is the same reason why MySpace used to be – the social media on there is rich. It’s rich media. It’s videos, photos, music, games, quizzes and other interactive applications. These worlds are colourful and fun. They’re also less demanding of your attention. You can drift in, and you can drift out, and nobody minds.
Twitter is entirely text-based; those that are good with crafting a sentence or turning a phrase are rewarded. For the most part, kids don’t do well with prose. I’ve been privy to some of the things my 13-year old (and otherwise quite brilliant) son chats about with his friends online, and believe me, we don’t want any of that on Twitter. You think there’s a lot of pointless babble now? Just you wait.
Sure, you can link to all the rich media you want, but the platform itself is all about words. If you want to watch a video, listen to some music or look at a photo, you have to leave Twitter and go somewhere else. I hope this never changes, as I don’t want to see any of these things on Twitter. Ever.
And Twitter likes it when you make an effort. It doesn’t matter if you’re a brand, a guru, a single mom, or some guy living out in the woods with a laptop. If you don’t have anything to say, people stop paying attention.
I like the idea of an adult-only network (in the non-porn/swinger sense). In fact, I really like it. And if the only way to get kids to tweet is by providing them with all this rich media, I say ‘oh well’. That’s a shame, because all we have are lots and lots of words.
Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.
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Danah Boyd dug into this research, and discovered that it doesn’t mean what everyone seems to think it means:
http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2009/08/06/teens_dont_twee.html
Yep, I’ve read Danah’s article. Excellent points are made, but it’s getting on for a month old now, and I don’t think any significant evidence has been presented to the contrary (neither statistically or anecdotally).
I’ve written before about the mixed messages we get from the various Twitter studies and statistics but I’ve seen the evidence with my own eyes. I’m noticed few very young (say, 13-17) people on Twitter, and the anecdotal evidence of observing my son and his friends (none of whom use Twitter, or even talk about it) suggests there’s some truth here.
Meantime, they all use Facebook and that network is (quite obviously) packed with youngsters, much like MySpace is/was.
Things like this are difficult to prove because it’s tough to gauge people’s ages (and even things like race, etc) unless they’re forthcoming (and honest) but let’s just say in my experience Twitter doesn’t seem to have the same appeal to kids as the other social networks. I’m certainly not saying there are no teenagers on the platform, as that’s clearly nonsense. Just that they don’t seem to be taking to it – yet – like they have done everywhere else (where they’ve led). And I think it’s for the reasons that I listed.
I have three offspring, aged 13 to 20. None are interested in Twitter, and all 3 are on Facebook. They say that Twitter is for old people, meaning anyone over the ancient age of 25. Probably the fact that I use Twitter is an even bigger turn-off, and to them, proof of their perception.
But, like you, I’m fine with that. We don’t need even more noise from those who don’t get it.
I’m an adult, so I tend to naturally gravitate towards other adults; that’s the beauty of twitter: you can group yourself with those like yourself. I’d suspected though that the literary constraints of twitter were attracting a more mature bunch, so it’s good to have that confirmed. Totally agree with you: the bells & whistels should be left to fb etc., twitter doesn’t need them. Great post
.-= Drolgerg´s last blog ..Agony With Aunty Drolgerg =-.
To be honest, I don’t see a big difference on Twitter as far as the quality of content. You would think that with fewer kids/teens, quality would improve. Instead, here’s a tweet I found hilarious: @brainlessbailey It may be that Teens Don’t Tweet, but some “adults” are happily filling the void by tweeting like high school dropouts. #fail
You only have to look as far as the Trending Topics to see that a large part of the population on Twitter is as bad as the average idiot on MySpace. If the Trending Topics are not controlled by teens, then does that mean so many adults on Twitter are as idiotic as many teens on other networks?
My personal way of looking at it is to look at content and not demographics. You often find that where you have communities forming around a specific interest, hobby, or goal, quality is higher regardless of the age of participants. Where you just have a mass gathering of buddies with no purpose other than to post pics from their latest drinking binge, it doesn’t matter if they’re 14 or 44, they still sound like someone you’d want to cross the street to avoid.
I think you get large groups of people who are less interested in any serious use of all social media platforms and just like to hang out and chat with friends, etc. A reason why lots of the comical hashtags make Twitter’s trending topics is because they’re a distraction that many enjoy during work hours, etc.
Interestingly I was looking at my (admittedly quite modest) Twittercism stats on my Facebook page and the most popular demograph – some 40% – comes from the 35-44 age group. Under-20s make up a very small percentage. This might be self-fulfilling to some extent, but the Twittercism page on Facebook is open to anybody.
I agree with you on that…I don't want to see Twitter become media rich either. Sometimes you just want to get away from all that social media noise and Twitter is the only one I've found that isn't full of surveys, videos, games, etc.
Interesting post.
Thanks!
Jenn