
  Why Teens Aren’t Using Twitter: It Doesn’t Feel Safe  - jasonlbaptiste
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/07/13/why-teens-arent-using-twitter/
======
Periodic
This is just a teenager stating his opinions based on what he observes in his
peer group. It does not include any real data.

That said, his argument seems to almost boil down to, "on Twitter you can't
choose your friends". There is no way to enforce a clique on Twitter. I
wouldn't be surprised if the majority of conversation among teens is directed
solely at their circle of friends, and not at the world and the common
collective that Twitter seems to embody.

The reason it's unsafe is that anyone could start following you! Imagine how
terrible it would be if that crazy kid no one likes started following you,
showing up at your parties and suddenly people thought you were friends. Or
what if that mean jock started reading your twitter feed and made fun of your
love of {insert obscure interest here}? The world would absolutely end!
Everyone knows there's nothing more important in life than who you take to
prom.

~~~
kragen
But you can set your Twitter account to "private", approve all follows, and
then your tweets are only visible to people you approve. So this doesn't hold
water.

~~~
michaelfairley
Once you do that, Twitter basically becomes a subset of Facebook, and you if
you already have a Facebook, there's no reason to switch.

~~~
kragen
It's all about where your friends are. I still use ICB.

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delano
The article refers to the Morgan Stanley report, but that report doesn't say
anything about anyone feeling unsafe. It says, "Teens don’t use Twitter
because no one is reading their tweets", so it's not clear what that claim is
based on.

~~~
profgubler
I think someone is reading their tweets. And it's their parents. That is why
teens avoid it, it is way easy for their parents to know everything. With
Facebook you don't need to share everything with your parents, and the world,
even if your parents are your friends.

To me that has to be the main difference.

------
shalmanese
For an actual, interesting, scholarly take on teens & twitter, check out Danah
Boyd's work:
[http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2009/05/16/answers...](http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2009/05/16/answers_to_ques.html)

~~~
mquander
Thanks for this link; it appears both credible and interesting.

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mquander
I read the original Morgan Stanley report, and it doesn't seem relevant to
what Techcrunch is saying. It's not clear to me whether Techcrunch actually
has any evidence pointing to this conclusion, or whether it's just a shot in
the dark.

Barring some further information, it seems like a really strained explanation
to me. I would not describe the young Internet users I see as being concerned
about safety or privacy.

------
AndrewWarner
MySpace was both open and had safety issues. Didn't stop teens from using it.

~~~
pavel_lishin
It wasn't open in the same sense as Twitter is - you could make your profile
private, and only allow people who are your "friends" to view anything besides
the very basic information.

Of course, this lulled people into a false sense of security; Anna made her
profile private to make sure that Bobby wouldn't read her diary, but her
friend Cindy would just login and let Bobby read everything from her account.

~~~
jorgeortiz85
You can make your Twitter updates private too.

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pavel_lishin
If the headlines is accurate, at least people are learning an important lesson
- if you don't want anyone to read something, don't put it online.

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nilbog
How is a 15 year old interning at Morgan Stanley?

~~~
jacquesm
family connections

~~~
delano
How do you know?

~~~
jacquesm
Because it requires a family member in the firm in order to be able to intern
at 15. When you're 17 and up you can be 'on your own'.

~~~
delano
Ah okay. So it's a safe assumption then :]

~~~
jacquesm
yes. I did this myself when I was 15, my mom worked for a bank. Different
country though, much the same rules.

It felt really weird being a kid amongst all the 'grown ups'. They all moved
so slow :)

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elcron
As a teenager the problem seems to be twitter doesn't solve a problem most
teens are having (facebook status updates are good enough for them) and not
enough people they care about are using it.

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shib71
It's not about safety, it's about privacy. Teenagers define themselves by who
they talk to even more than what they talk about.

------
aberman
I think it's just because there are not as many teenage social media gurus.

