
America’s Teens Are Choosing YouTube Over Facebook - doener
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-31/america-s-teens-are-choosing-youtube-over-facebook
======
wolco
There isn't anything to do on facebook for the young/youth.

The games are more for the middle aged player.

They have no list of long lost people they wish to connect with. Everyone is a
friend or friend of a friend.

You can follow brands but the youth want to follow a band or an actor not a
toothbrush company.

Things like poking or using a fake name or having permissions connected to
school or orgs created social group that you would share related photos. Now
you have to manage a list or share with everyone.

Facebook was a good way for college kids to connect with everyone from there
school. They could create a new persona with fun photos/videos and show
everyone how popular they are. Now you hide your friend list, avoid saying
anything that you wouldn't say in front of your mother and secretly worry that
anything you post will be purchased by a potential future employer enabling
them to filter out your resume in record time.

~~~
eksemplar
The sole reason I’m still on Facebook is because events are organized on
Facebook. I know I’d still get invited if I deleted Facebook, but I don’t
really want to be the person, that everyone always have to text message for
rsvp, planning, changes and so on.

This only happens in Facebook because everyone in my social circle is on
Facebook though. Young people aren’t faced with this platform lock in and I
absolutely agree with you, why would they ever join?

Facebook is basically the yellow pages at this point, and how many millennials
ever used a phone book?

~~~
jpttsn
Is there really no good “just the events” app or site?

Personally I hear about the things I want to attend anyway, but I have the
same feeling of not knowing nonetheless.

~~~
johnchristopher
[https://www.facebook.com/local/](https://www.facebook.com/local/)

That could be a killer app if Facebook gives it love.

------
MrJagil
Alright, I'll post this as top-level:

> The sole reason I’m still on Facebook is because events are organized on
> Facebook. (eksemplar)

I study Music Management at the conservatory (university), and spend most of
my time on events and festivals. It is my impression that few in the tech
business understands the magnitude of this market, and how Facebook entirely
owns it. The entire concert-format is under enormous pressure from the booming
festival and club scene, making services like Songkick irrelevant.
ResidentAdvisor is good, but too editorial, too little tech.

Facebook democratised event-making in a great way. You can trust that a good
portion of the people attending an event is actually going. You can make
events private, which is good for pirate-parties and other underground events
(Lead Users). And importantly, it gives event makers insight into who is
coming, how many, how the growth curve is etc. Artists can link to their
_personalised_ profile, that people will actually follow for updates. This is
hugely important for creators.

If you start a competitor, it'd be natural to focus on music, but then you'll
still leave all the people interested mostly in art-exhibitions on Facebook.
Facebook is content-neutral, which is a huge advantage. Further, they have an
entire business-suite platform (groups) on top of this, meaning I can discuss
our events, plan them, while linking to relevant artists, venues etc on
Facebook. I can book artists, book a venue and market the event _entirely_ on
the FB-platform. That is an important advantage in the space of social media.

Facebook is, without comparison, the best tool for events.

~~~
f_allwein
It also baffles me why there is no good (open?) solution for showing, finding
and managing events I might want to attend in my town. Music venues, cinemas,
theatres, ... all have their own separate listings, and in most places, it is
impossible to see them all in one place, let alone to import them to your own
calendar, or to get personalised recommendations.

~~~
morgante
[https://www.facebook.com/events/](https://www.facebook.com/events/) provides
precisely that and is one of the things which makes Facebook such a great
platform for events.

------
mortdeus
A few days ago I decided I was done with Facebook for good. It just makes me
depressed nowadays. I listened to a talk given by Chamath Palihapitiya and
another given by Sean Parker and they both used a phrase that kinda freaked me
out. They both separately talked about how they specifically designed
"dopamine driven feedback loops" to take advantage of user psychology. To get
them hooked.

And then I just started realizing how creepy it is that they don't even allow
somebody to outright delete their profile unless they have died and their
legacy admin proves they have died and deletes it for them.

How creepy is that? They are like a manipulative partner in a relationship,
who thinks they have their hooks in you so deep that they act all
compassionately when you say you want to break up, but deep inside they are
saying to themselves, "You'll be back bitch. You know you need daddy."

It used to be a good thing. I mean i've sparked a few relationships using
facebook. But nowadays it's just political banter, pictures of single mother's
babies (i lost my baby son 5 years ago so this makes me uncomfortable when im
bombarded by everybody else's little bundles of joy), memes memes memes memes,
stories about dead/missing people, non stop selfies, and nothing of real
substance.

Aren't we supposed to like not know so much about other people so that when we
get together we have something to discover about each other? It's like we have
gotten to the point where we NEED to know everything about people we actually
don't really know that well in real life.

And everybody is competing for points on who can be the most self obsessed and
nosey at the same time. I'd rather watch Youtube videos because at least that
is art in a way. People taking time to make sure what they say is presented in
the best format possible.

~~~
gaius
_A few days ago I decided I was done with Facebook for good. It just makes me
depressed nowadays. I listened to a talk given by Chamath Palihapitiya and
another given by Sean Parker and they both used a phrase that kinda freaked me
out_

About 2 weeks after I stopped, I no longer even wanted to use it and actually
thought it was a little weird how I ever wanted to. But in 2007, it was cool
and fun.

~~~
welly
I get facebook and was a user (on and off as I almost annually deleted my
account) but then I found it a massive waste of time so gave up entirely just
after Christmas.

I did join back up again for one specific facebook group. however I wasn't
getting much out of it and on top of that, the Cambridge Analytica debacle
just left a bad taste in my mouth and I've dropped facebook entirely, again.

It's been about 3 months now and I really have no desire to sign up again -
occasionally I've browsed the group as an anonymous user and nothing has
inspired me to join.

I've also dropped Twitter and other social media sits - I feel that until they
get their shit together as far as privacy concerns, I'm just not interested in
being part of any of that.

So it's HN and a couple of subject specific forums for me, and that will do
for my "social media" needs. I've considered joining reddit but the jury is
still out on that.

------
poulsbohemian
Teen dad checking in here. YouTube, Instagram, and Snapchat seem to be the
mainstream among teens right now. I'd argue it is less a reflection on
Facebook and more about what they admire and desire. YouTube and Instagram
enable them to follow the people and activities that interest them, and entice
them to be future "internet stars" too.

~~~
eat_veggies
Youtube fulfills the desire to broadcast your life in a way Facebook really
can't. I think the subscribers vs friends distinction is important here.
Twitter followers work the same way. I don't get excited about random people
adding me on Facebook, but if a bunch of people follow me on Twitter or
subscribe to my channel, it's a different story.

And Instagram + Snapchat are more about looking at what your friends are up
to, and offer way more intimate experiences than Facebook. I have never seen a
link to a news website or political ad on either platform, but Facebook is
littered with them, and it crowds out the content I want to see: pictures of
my friends doing cool stuff. If I want astroturfing and news, I go to reddit
and HN :P

So Facebook occupies the awkward middle ground, and most people I know use it
to collect acquaintances and to exchange Instagram/Snapchat handles.

Source: am teen

~~~
josephjrobison
As a 29 year old, I’ve just found YouTube much more interesting and actionable
recently. Almost every topic is covered and the best content rises to the top.

The recommendation engine is really good now. I’ve added more to my watch
later list in the last 6 months than I have in the last 6 years combined.

As an SEO I’m surprised to admit, but I find it better to search directly in
YouTube than actual Google search for certain searches.

Google was playing the loooong game on YouTube and it seems to be paying off.

~~~
TaylorAlexander
Yup. I’m 33 and stopped using Facebook a year ago. YouTube is what I’m all
about. I use it to listen to ML lectures mostly, and I share videos of my
robots. Facebook seems like it’s for old people now or something, and I’m
disgusted with how creepy that site became.

~~~
wyclif
Off-topic slightly, but is there a way to change my YT username? In other
words, changing
[https://www.youtube.com/user/[mycurrentusername]](https://www.youtube.com/user/\[mycurrentusername\])
to [newusername] ?

~~~
konraditurbe
[https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2657968?hl=es](https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2657968?hl=es)

You need +100 subs

~~~
pythonaut_16
What a bizarre requirement. Why should someone need 100 subscribers to do a
simple action like changing their account name?

Why not limit how often you can change it, or make some other kind of
limitation?

------
princeb
FB has always had a MSN.com or Yahoo.com vibe, but with the latest "see other
posts across facebook" update, it's gone completely Taboola.

that's not even half as entertaining as instagram or snapchat right now. i
feel like snapchat should really be a little bit ahead, because the social
experience is a lot more interesting than instagram's, but instagram's larger
user base means more interesting pictures and videos right now, even if these
videos are a little bit "detached" from the user's social experience.

facebook's social experience has totally lost the plot when they started
trimming the social feed in favour of links to websites outside of facebook.

really the crux of these social websites is that they need to have a social
experience. if i wanted gossip news or political reading i'd go to a gossip
website or a political journal.

~~~
adventured
I agree with the Yahoo vibe. You know the left wall of navigation items on the
desktop browser version of Facebook? That shows eg: Events, Marketplace,
Groups, Pages, Friends List, On This Day, Find Friends, Photos, and other
similar junk.

It looks just like a portal straight out of 1999. It comes across as generic,
soulless - a product trying to be everything that ends up being nothing in
particular.

Here's the most recent Yahoo version of that left strip of be-everything-and-
nothing portalism icons (archive.org stray example from 2014):

[https://web.archive.org/web/20140420105343/https://www.yahoo...](https://web.archive.org/web/20140420105343/https://www.yahoo.com/)

I consume a lot of content from YouTube. It's fun, mostly enjoyable (can
easily ignore the trash comments). Facebook is an extremely mediocre product
by comparison, it's not much fun at all. I use YouTube regularly to watch
video that might include everything from news, movie trailers, documentaries,
vblogs, entertainment show clips, sports clips, speaker forums, and so on.
Facebook by contrast, I consume with a bare minimum type approach: I use it as
little as necessary.

The only two complaints I have about YouTube's product, is the quality of the
comments, and there are still too many fake automated junk videos on there (or
otherwise the: you won't believe what happened next junk). Most video search
results require a bit of filtering through that.

------
vowelless
Is there anyone in HN legitimately using Facebook anymore? I deleted my
account more than a year ago and initially I missed events, but more and more,
my conversations and invites are moving to WhatsApp, Discord (surprisingly
awesome), Instagram, Signal, etc.

Events are really the only thing I miss from FB. Startup idea for anyone who
wants to try to address it: independent Events app that connects with
everything under the sun (FB, Google, etc.)

~~~
komali2
Yes, obviously lol.

It is the primary communication tool for everyone I know in the bay area,
excluding professionals that I email or teammates at code for SF that I
message on slack.

~~~
vowelless
Oh yeah I forgot Messenger. Discord and WhatsApp replaced that for me.

~~~
strig
I would love to switch away from Messenger but all my friends are still using
it.

------
1024core
I have a friend who has 2 teenage boys. The other day we're talking about
stuff on the Internet, and he says something along the lines of "I wish I
could monitor what they're watching on the Internet!".

And I was like, I think there's some porn blockers around.

And he replied, "I wish they'd watch porn! They're watching YT, getting crazy
ideas from others and doing stupid things!"

------
keyle
Going past the whole "X is better than Y".

Isn't it just a symptom that the next generation doesn't want the same thing
as their parents?

e.g. I don't want to live in my childhood home, I don't want to wear my dad's
clothes and I don't want to drive his car.

So every largely successful social media platform is doomed to only be `the
one` for 1 generation?

~~~
st26
Isn't that mostly because his car, clothes, and house are probably behind the
times? A social media platform can grow & evolve, a house built sixty years
ago can't much.

The things my father owned that are still current are pretty special to me,
actually.

~~~
benwad
Social media platforms can adapt with the times, but they often don't -
Facebook was built in an atmosphere of "move fast and break things", but you
can't do that when you're a multi-billion dollar company with shareholders who
don't like it when you break things.

------
jvreagan
As a parent of two teenage boys who's had this conversation with many parents
of teenagers: a) this has been the trend for several years b) they are
choosing Youtube over TV, Netflix, etc c) teens go where their parents aren't
(Discord, WhatsApp, Snapchat, etc).

As I heard a teenager say a couple years ago "why would I create a Facebook
account, its for old moms."

~~~
marcodave
> teens go where their parents aren't

> As I heard a teenager say a couple years ago "why would I create a Facebook
> account, its for old moms."

Precisely. Apart from the illusion of becoming an internet star, kids simply
cater to the places where is most unlikely that their parents and older
relatives can find them.

Why post the latest slumber party photos on FB, if your aunt could somehow see
and comment on those? (yes yes I know, privacy settings, custom lists, private
groups, yada yada... )

------
uptownfunk
I talked to my niece who is 19yo. Her take is that everyone is all about

Instagram (basically personal brand/image management, checking out latest
styles from other people, styles she can actually afford)

Snapchat (personal circle of friends, unedited content)

YouTube (lifestyle bloggers)

Facebook is dying in their demographic.. pretty fast, except for Facebook
pages for things she’s interested in

~~~
paulie_a
"unedited content" is a euphemism for sharing nudity.

~~~
nv-vn
No, it's really not. I mean sure there is some of that, but you're wrong if
you think that's all people use Snapchat for. People share things on Snapchat
to their close group of friends which means you're willing to say things you
wouldn't say in public about people, say things you wouldn't want your mom to
hear, pass secrets around, or just talk in a more "anonymous" way. It's the
difference between somebody taking 45 minutes to pose for and edit their next
Instagram post vs. sending 45 snaps in a minute without even looking at the
picture you take. It's almost like Casey Neistat's Beme--Snapchat encourages
you not to care about what you send because it will be gone in 3-10 seconds.

~~~
paulie_a
The op was referring to a teenager... Unedited content absolutely is nudity.
It's actually the reason Snapchat was invented.

~~~
slow_donkey
It's the reason sc was invented but definitely not what it has evolved into.
I'm aware there's porn accounts but the majority usecase is simply a low-
friction 0 commitment method of sending pictures/thoughts/happenings

------
boot13
YouTube is the world's greatest repository of culture. And shitty comments.
But mostly the culture thing. And Facebook is a bulletin board. No
competition.

------
cromwellian
My 13 year old uses mostly YouTube, Instagram, Discord, Twitch, and Reddit, no
FB.

I have nieces and nephews on FB, but they never post much, they hide most of
their real content on anonymous Instagram accounts.

------
noonespecial
My teens don't even have accounts.

They used to talk about when there would be more dead people on facebook than
alive. I think they were mistaken about the alive people still on facebook
part.

Facebook is going to be a small, odd, digital graveyard from the early 'net.

------
beenBoutIT
I'm curious what these kids who start out on Facebook as sonogram pics are
going to think of Facebook when they become cognizant.

~~~
ashelmire
The first of those may be teenagers this year.

~~~
beenBoutIT
Eventually this sad crowd will get their own generational letter designation.

------
ransom1538
Disclaimer: I work on a large high school social app.

High school kids hate facebook. It is what their parents use and they view it
as a historical ledger of their actions. They view facebook more like a
'yearbook' not as a day to day hangout.

------
morbusfonticuli
Although this might not add any value to the general discussion, i feel the
urge to break my lurker-silence and share my latest epiphany: end-twenties
german compsci-student here. in retrospective, my act of leaving facebook and
(obviously in contrast to a lot of other users here) not replacing it with any
substitute "social media" account might have had a bigger impact on my life as
i would have guessed. Since years, i have been using Telegram, signal, SMS,
the gold old phonecalls, email and IRC (my jabber contacts also moved to
signal, etc.) and i can guarantee you to have a pretty reduced social life. In
a more active phase of my life (a couple of years ago) i still went frequently
to concerts with 2-3 friends who would send me routinely emails containing
facebook-screenshots etc. ... Nowadays i lead a life most separated from the
rest of the "social" world. Of course i still have friends and visit Them from
time to time, etc. ... But on facebook i realized my self-consuming habit of
constantly checking what other ppl i rarely knew thought or did or "liked". I
have to admit that despite this time consuming social media habits i could
really lead a reflected and productive life, but to be honest i still put feel
time into passively(!) surfing the net, reading and watching a lot of news,
journals, trivia, etc. Through other eyes this comment might seem bitter, but
i actually enjoy my life without this burden of social media platforms on
myself. Are here some other 'conscientious objectors'?

------
webbrahmin
For me HN is more valuable than FB. Value of HN has stayed the same for me
over the years while the value/utility of FB has gradually eroded and I hardly
ever use Facebook now.

------
smattiso
This seems like a strange comparison. Teens have eschewed FB in favor of
Instagram and Snapchat for years. My feeling is that YouTube is simply
becoming more popular and Facebook is becoming less. This is like saying that
"America's Teens are Choosing Buzzfeed Over Facebook." They aren't even in the
same category. The writing is on the wall for FB as a web property.

------
oh-kumudo
I am wrapping my head to think about what Facebook could do that I can't live
without. Essentially, it is a contact book. But it is so much more complex
than just that. It has a bit of everything: Photo sharing, Event organization
and opinion advocating.

But as it all adds up, Facebook is becoming less and less social overtime:
people posted stuff, but they don't really expect interactions, they only want
reactions, and the ones they expected. Unlike chatting, unexpected
conversation could happen, and could genuinely help discovery of new
perspectives. Facebook, in its current form, is just a static wall of
trophies, a decorated personality about what you want people to think you are.
It is tiring and indeed requires high maintenance.

It will not be surprising to me, that Facebook's downfall is just the
beginning, they might keep buying other social apps, but it does little to
keep their current audience from going away.

------
gfo
Let's back up for a second...

This article only refers to usage as 'visit(ing)' the sites, but nothing about
interaction. Are we to assume that teens are actively consuming and producing
content on YouTube?

There's a huge difference here. When I still had Facebook I would have never
said I spent most of my time there. It's very easy to say YouTube consumes
more of your time considering how easy it is to go down the rabbit-hole of
related videos, how-tos, etc.

Even my dad always tells me to 'get on the YouTube' to look up videos on how
to do things when he isn't here to show me because it has videos 'on
everything'.

What I'm really getting at is there are completely different uses for each
site. For advertisers it's important to know where the majority of time is
spent but I don't think that means Facebook is becoming irrelevant.

~~~
gunnyguy121
I see Facebook and YouTube as completely different and I think a lot of people
would agree. For most people YouTube is all about consuming. Sure some people
make videos, but most go nowhere. Most people are just using it to fill their
day, or for background noise while they do other stuff, just like people have
been doing with TV for years.(why do you think YouTube made autoplay a thing).
Facebook is more about connecting with people and expressing yourself than it
is about consuming things.

------
kumarvvr
Youtube is seriously addictive. Cognitive load of watching videos is much
lesser than reading.

I spen hours on YouTube watching America's Funniest Home videos.

Trying hard to get out of that addiction.

------
seccess
I'm pretty surprised Twitch isn't mentioned in that list. I'm curious where it
would stack up.

~~~
karimdag
I'm a "millennial", so I think I speak millennial pretty well. Twitch is a
very niche product: THE go-to place for the gaming community, it's also trying
to break into mainstream live-streaming but that's Instagram's territory.

~~~
arwineap
Which is _super_ interesting because twitch was justin.tv's pivot FROM
mainstream live-streaming into the niche game streaming market

~~~
karimdag
Yeah, I know ! Thing is, I think Justin is ahead of his time (he did it with
Justin.tv and Whale).

------
yeukhon
I am a few years away from 30. I have disabled FB and Instagram recently so I
can free myself from some stress. I use YouTube a lot because I enjoy watching
game plays (e.g. H2ODelirious, VanossGaming, etc.) YouTube is a good
alternative to TV shows and Netflix.

~~~
AnIdiotOnTheNet
I never much cared for any of the social media platforms because they all seem
to be just gamified crap, a great example of technology making people's lives
worse instead of better.

But Youtube and Twitch I like. It's kinda what cable public-access was trying
to do, only way better.

------
josefresco
Dad with two pre-teen kids here. The order of apps by most time spent is the
following: YouTube (by far), Netflix and then for my older one, Snapchat,
Music.ly with some random Instagram. As they get older, I see usage of
Snapchat and Instagram increasing. Neither of my kids have Facebook accounts
or want FB accounts (yay!)

Activities on YT: Slime videos, Minecraft videos, and lots of "pretty young
girls doing stuff" (crafting, lifehacks etc.) They don't comment, and despite
my repeated encouragement, don't really publish their own videos.

------
drchiu
I think teens nowadays are much more guarded (given how long social networks
have been around now). They've grown up with the knowledge of how social
media, when misused, can come back to haunt them. Most of my nephews and
nieces have multiple throwaway accounts -- some of which they share with their
parents and other accounts that they use as their main one.

Decreased FB usage is likely a reflection that they're wary of how FB utilizes
their data, and realizing it's better to be choosy where they post info about
themselves.

~~~
matte_black
You give kids way too much credit. If all their friends were on Facebook,
they’d be on Facebook.

Facebook failed to market effectively to up and coming teenagers, and as a
result they have grown up into people who have chosen alternative networks
that looked fun and cool, not boring and corporate blue.

No one gives a shit about data.

~~~
robotbikes
People care about their data when it can tangibly affect them. Teens know that
their parents or other parents can see their data on Facebook. They are pushed
to use their real names and in general the context creep is what drives them
away. They may not care about the abstract notion of data in terms of data
mining etc but they do care about having what they share being seen by people
they don't want it to be seen by.

------
bebe3000
For a 25 years old student from a middle european country that I am,
everything happens on facebook. I don't post or see posts of others. I simply
hid that feature with a browser extension long time ago. But I use groups
extensively for discussions and help in any field i'm interested in. There are
groups where you can only sell things, that's also very useful. I use
messenger to connect to literally anyone I know, my family, friends, my
colleagues. I receive events there too. Some of the places I go to only have a
facebook page. Last time a good confectionery posted that they close in a
week. How else would I know if I didn't use facebook? It's pretty much perfect
for me because I can't think of anything else that I would need. Another
interesting thing is a group where almost all of the country is represented
and they have varying quiality posts on everything that happened to them. If
someone keyed your car, you ask for witnesses there, if you lost your wallet
on a tram, you ask for help there. Currently the admins share abortion stories
to keep the sources' anonimity. So that's a nice group with all it's quirks.

------
indescions_2018
It's amazing how much Periscope got right in its design. I'm guessing scaling
mobile video broadcasts was the limiting factor. If you're Arianna Grande
going live just before she steps on stage, or BTS landing in the US for the
first time or basically any rapper dragging Drake right now. There is no other
experience that is simpler to use, more immediate, or more real for
interacting with your followers than Instagram Live. Given 200M+ daily story
users, the stream quality is technically remarkable.

Monetization for users with under 10K followers is much easier on Twitch.tv
right now. Than on any other platform, including YouTube. The Fortnite
cultural phenomenon is just beginning. And the ancillary revenue services such
as Streamlabs involve direct sponsorship. As opposed to negotiating third
party brand deals. Twitch popularity is creating the feedback loop that
informs game design. Looking across the Pacific at Tencent and its 500M mobile
gamers. Just can't help but think there is still phenomenal upside here ;)

------
sharemywin
VIOLATORS!!!!

2.3 You may not use the Service and may not accept the Terms if (a) you are
not of legal age to form a binding contract with YouTube, or (b) you are a
person who is either barred or otherwise legally prohibited from receiving or
using the Service under the laws of the country in which you are resident or
from which you access or use the Service.

------
jpm_sd
Google+ was ahead of its time, apparently?

~~~
on_and_off
The idea of circles in Google+ is pure genius.

It was shoddily implemented though. IIRC even the academic that had the circle
idea ranted about how badly plus had implemented it.

On one hand, I would rather have somebody else than Google handling the next
social network, on the other, plus had some great idea and shined for a time
in some areas like photography.

I used to frequent it a couple of times a week several years ago.

Nowadays, each time I open it by mistake I am taken aback by how extremist
lunatics are everywhere in my feed (ymmv)

~~~
eat_veggies
Nowadays, people manually emulate circles using multiple accounts--a rinsta
[0] for the curated public circle, and a finsta [1] for close friends to post
personal experiences and funny photos. Some people I know have _multiple_
finstas with varying levels of specificity.

[0] "real insta"

[1] "fake insta"

~~~
frizkie
Weird, those definitions seems backwards to me. The one for close friends
seems like it should be the 'real' account.

~~~
fragmede
In this context, the "real insta" account is the curated one to build a
personal brand; only highly-filtered/vetted content gets posted there. Due to
all the time put into curating it, the account is intended to persist forever.

The posts to the "fake insta" has less of a filter, and the account will be
dropped/rotated as soon as it gets too much baggage or some content goes
negatively viral. Someone bothering the user on their "fake insta"? But the
user can't/won't block them for social/cultural reasons? Just stop using that
account and create a brand new one, and then only tell your close friends
about the new one. Everyone else is still following the old "fake" one which
you no longer use hence its fake-ness.

------
chiefalchemist
I didn't realize this is new news. I mean when I see some obviously teen-
centric piece of content with a gazillion views I'm not presuming working full
time adults are the ones driving the views figure.

This tends to be the top videos. Or at least consistently seems to be.

------
ehsankia
The sites aside, I also appreciated the comparison of device, though I really
wish they had split that up further by device. At the very least separate
Desktop and Laptop. I'd be curious to see what % of people still have a
desktop computer at home.

~~~
sleet
How would you separate desktops and laptops? (Honest question, I'm not sure
how you would do that)

I assume the stats are based on usage not a survey.

~~~
fragmede
There isn't one. As a proxy, one could do a bunch of data gymnastics based off
of the number of times a machine+account uses a single IP address and display
resolution + OS. It's a pretty bad approximation though.

~~~
russdpale
Is there a way to detect webcam model? That's the one unique thing I can think
of.. A lot of desktops don't have them and if they do its like logitech
whatever model.

------
andrewstuart
YouTube has become my primary TV viewing destination, above anything else.

I watch it on the TV via my PS4.

------
dxbydt
wonder why the market isn’t pricing in the FB misery.look at 3 month on FB.
back in march it was on ~190, then the cambridge shit dragged it straight down
to ~150, now 3 months later we are back to ~190, exactly where we left off.

~~~
wolco
Because middle age people make better targets for ads. The old adage that you
need to sell only to youth because preferences are set at a younger age
doesn't make sense when people will switch brands more rapidly than in the
past.

~~~
casefields
No, it has to do with disposable income.

------
hackermailman
Just came back from SE Asia (4 countries) and everyone I met or saw in public
was using FB and WhatsApp, and YouTube for almost everything. Telecoms also
offered 'Facebook package' or YouTube specific promotions.

~~~
realusername
Also living in SE Asia on my case and I confirm that Facebook is much much
bigger than in Europe there.

Facebook is clearly having a slow death in Europe, the real cut-off seems to
be around the age of 30, the youngest, the less they are on Facebook. I wound
not be surprised if the teens nowadays would not have any account at all.

------
qwerty456127
Perhaps because emotions are easier to express and read this way rater than in
text form.

But it still feels to me like watching 99% videos is mostly a boring waste of
time compared to quick-read text&picture scrollable feed posts. I'm just not
comfortable with the slow pace and low concentration of the information flow
in videos (and books).

Is the "Twitter generation" that prefers to consume information quickly in
small high-concentration portions passing away?

~~~
erikpukinskis
For me, YouTube is less about browsing low quality content quickly and more
about identifying videographers who I really like, and enjoying 10m that
someone really put effort into.

~~~
qwerty456127
Aren't such harder to find as video content is not searchable?

~~~
erikpukinskis
Yes very hard. It seems to take years to build up a good list of
subscriptions. Reminds me of early Twitter in that sense.

I sometimes come across an account and discover it’s a part of a whole
community of accounts. I pick through and subscribe to some. Sometimes my feed
takes a turn for the repetitive and then I prune accounts.

The homepage is OK but the subscription feed is the only thing you can get to
a worthwhile state but it takes some tending to it. Similar to RSS too in that
sense.

------
davisonio
As an 18 year old the only things Facebook is used for in my circle is:

1\. Facebook Events for invites 2\. Facebook Marketplace 3\. Facebook Groups
of interests 4\. The occasional profile update or "on this day" post

With the news of the new Facebook dating service, it seems that Facebook is
moving away from users reading a single feed and having separate parts for all
functions. For sure, it is not used to share or read anything meaningful in my
circle.

~~~
mkirklions
What social media do you use?

What are the most common things you do on the internet?

~~~
Harvey-Specter
My brother is 19, he basically only uses Instagram and Snapchat. He even uses
Snapchat as his primary messaging app, which is infuriating.

------
ggg9990
It’s clear that Facebook.com is yesterday’s news but it seems like the
alternatives may be as damaging to the individual and to his or her society.

------
thanatropism
In Brazil top youtubers are outperforming television stars and traditional
entertainers in the celebrity game. Books featuring these people are always in
the best-seller lists and live appearances draw rock star-level crowds.

Most interesting: these people are appealing mostly to the sub-14 crowd.
Children find about youtubers by word of mouth but also by fumbling with
tablets and cell phones.

------
alistairSH
Is it just teens dropping Facebook? My wife and I are GenXers and we've both
mostly stopped using it. I removed the apps from all but one device and
deleted the bookmarks from all browsers. I check it once a week or so, mostly
for events and photos from my parents.

I'm half tempted to disable/delete my account and see if I miss it at all.

------
paul7986
I use YouTube(red) more then Netflix and Direct TV Now(comes free with my ATT
plan). I'd rather just watch 10 to 20 minutes of professional content
(favorite TV shows or clips of them) along with all the rando discovery that's
tailored to my likes then long format stuff or annoying commercial TV.

Im a few decades older then a teenager.

------
forgotAgain
FB was cool to teens when it was limited to college students. Scarcity is gone
and coolness left with it.

------
mehWhateverrr
Facebook is literally brimming with bad vibes, since the prevailing winds of
perception are that the idea of anonymity is a flimsy wet paper bag, in the
face of what technology really has going on.

This sort of hopelessness is bringing about varying degrees of abandon,
nevermind the negative examples of adults and celebrities that shed light on
the total lack of any positive role model. They know that the only winning
move is not to play, and sometimes even that isn’t an option.

No one knows what they’re doing. No one knows what comes next. And many, many
people have a sinking feeling about what’s already happened, and whether it’s
all far too late.

Instagram is an envy club. The vapidity of food, vacation, beaches. But
generally lower on the spectacle, as a matter of trend more than anything
else.

Snapchat is for trading nudes, and general subterfuge, such as spreading
rumors about eachother, with selectively memory-holed messaging.

So even youtube, with the limited veracity of generally public video as a
forum will fall too. It’s only so much of a salve for truthiness.

~~~
asdsa5325
> Facebook is literally brimming with bad vibes, since the prevailing winds of
> perception...

I'm pretty sure the real reason why teenagers are leaving FB is because their
parents are joining.

~~~
chrisseaton
> I'm pretty sure the real reason why teenagers are leaving FB is because
> their parents are joining.

This doesn't make sense as a reason in 2018, does it? Everyone's parents and
grandparents joined a decade ago - they're not joining now in significant
numbers in the West.

~~~
bnjms
You're right. Better to say they never joined because there parents were on
there. School is insular and the first group to have their parents begin
reviewing their social interactions, I'd guess around 2012, 'taught' the
younger grades that FB wasn't worthwhile compared to alternatives.

------
irrational
This aligns extremely well with what I have seen with my teenagers and their
friends.

Recently I was at an event where a teenager was giving a speech in which he
mentioned Snapchat or Instagram and said, as an aside, "That's like Facebook
for you old people".

------
FrozenVoid
The key factor many would miss is gaming videos and gaming-related
livestreams, that are really popular with younger demographics. Many of them
don't even play games, they just watch it on Youtube(or Twitch), like sports
fans.

------
ausjke
Then youtube should have a better age-based filtering mechanism for all its
videos.

~~~
asdsa5325
It seems like all content would be fine for them, what would you filter out
for _teenagers_?

~~~
chrisseaton
> what would you filter out for teenagers?

Most societies have an expectation that some content isn't shown to, for
example a 13 year old person. In the US you have content ratings like NC-17,
don't you? In the UK we have 15 and 18 rated content. So I guess content like
that, some people would filter for teenagers.

~~~
sandov
I think Youtube already filters that content.

There are very few videos with age restriction and most of them have to do
with sexually suggestive content, which doesn't make much sense because
teenagers (at least male teens) consume porn anyways.

What kind of unrestricted videos are inappropiate for teens?

~~~
tyfon
Age restriction is sort of a self imposed thing. But on youtube you only have
"18+" or "all".

Youtube expects you to rate your videos yourself, or you can get reported and
they will do it for you. Basically content that contains one of the following
is supposed to be 18+ [1]:

* Vulgar language

* Violence and disturbing imagery

* Nudity and sexually suggestive content

* Portrayal of harmful or dangerous activities

Personally I put restriction when I upload game videos with graphic violence
as that is not really suited for non adults imho. I'm less likely to put
restriction on nudity and vulgar language although I don't swear myself in my
videos.

[1]
[https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2802167?hl=en](https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2802167?hl=en)

------
ryanlechner
My 11 y/o cousin says Facebook is "instagram for old people"

------
WheelsAtLarge
Google is missing the opportunity to use youtube as the basis for a social
network.

Zuckerberg is not one to stay still, he'll copy youtube and use it to keep
Facebook relevant. It's only a matter of time.

~~~
josefresco
Facebook already has been trying to "copy" YouTube for several years now. I
remember a couple years back FB touting videos and how much time was spent on
FB watching video. This news, seems to indicate they have not succeeded in
denting YT's market share.

------
optimuspaul
I'm over 40 and I totally get it, youtube is guaranteed to have something
entertaining on it that I can find in seconds. Facebook, not so much.

------
z3t4
Last time I checked you needed to be 18 or older to have a Facebook account,
most likely to protect Facebook themselves.

------
yellowboxtenant
This is one big "duh" for literally anyone around teens and pre-teens.

------
techsin101
My prime use is messenger and groups. There isn't alternative for groups.

------
crb002
Minecraft videos.

~~~
josefresco
This. My 9 year old has basically stopped playing Minecraft and now only
watches Minecraft players on YT.

This seems to be her favorite:
[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1hvCOA0eQXwSAsW3jKs8IQ](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1hvCOA0eQXwSAsW3jKs8IQ)

I've tried to counteract this by purchasing the PC version (for her and her
cousins), helping her with mods, encouraging her to "cast" her own gaming
sessions, gaming with her (this works the best) - nothing has really worked.
I'm not going to lose sleep over it but I'm also not giving up with trying to
encourage her to be a "creator" and not just a consumer.

------
seattle_spring
> America’s Teens Are Choosing YouTube Over Facebook

Wow, that's like saying America's teens are choosing Jenkem over marijuana.

------
deeteecee
how are the two even comparable?

~~~
sudouser
people spending time on one or the other

~~~
josefresco
This, combined with Facebook's previous motivations to "get into video" are
probably worrisome to FB execs.

~~~
sudouser
yes! didn’t facebook plan to create a netflix competitor?

------
jacksmith21006
Also think Reddit as it passed FB to be #3 most popular site on the internet.

~~~
icebraining
On Alexa, which is not necessarily a reliable source.

Plus it doesn't count app usage, making it a fairly useless indicator.

~~~
josefresco
Reliable is probably not the best adjective. Alexa ratings are very reliable
if you measure them against previous Alexa rankings.

------
KhayriRRW
YouTube and Google has better regulations against cyberbullying compared to
Facebook.

~ Khayri R.R. Woulfe

------
ziggytoplop
That I understand

