
A Teenager’s View on Social Media - nicksergeant
https://medium.com/@thatswattsup/a-teenagers-view-on-social-media-1df945c09ac6
======
themodelplumber
This is weird; the author possibly met with the CEO of Snapchat more than once
recently:

[https://twitter.com/thatswattsup/status/546018511902867456](https://twitter.com/thatswattsup/status/546018511902867456)

> Can't wait to visit my friends at @Snapchat again tomorrow :D

[https://twitter.com/thatswattsup/status/545326840940740608](https://twitter.com/thatswattsup/status/545326840940740608)

> Loved hanging out with @evanspiegel yesterday, he's one of the nicest and
> more genuine guys I've met. Thanks for having me @Snapchat!

...influencer? Hope not :(

~~~
MarcScott
I was teaching a lesson on cryptography to a bunch of twelve year olds this
morning, and with reference to https, I asked how many had used Facebook
before school - no hands, how about Instagram - no hands, how about Snapchat -
half the class put their hands up. It's definitely the most popular network
amongst teens in my (UK) school.

~~~
calvin99
Uh.. Could it be that people under 13 are not allowed on Facebook?

~~~
philangist
People under 18 also aren't allowed to watch porn, and people under 21
definitely can't drink.

~~~
admsyn
There's a pretty big difference between grabbing content off some site and
establishing a social media presence, surely?

~~~
kbenson
No? In one case, you click a button and/or check a box to confirm you are of a
certain age to see porn, in the other you enter a wrong number into a specific
field during account creation.

In then end, people desire something (access to content and/or interaction),
and all that prevents them from having it is being completely truthful in one
spot about a question that really doesn't seem that important.

------
AndrewKemendo
This is filled with gems that old farts like me (I'm 30) don't have any idea
about.

 _If I don’t get any likes on my Instagram photo or Facebook post within 15
minutes you can sure bet I 'll delete it._

Super interesting take - it's as though they are posting not to show people
stuff but to get people's approval for what they are posting. Simple but
critically different in my opinion.

 _Facebook is often used by us mainly for its group functionality._

Got it, so make a better group service and bring everyone to that.

One big thing I took away is that, assuming this is representative of the
demographic, they seem to not mind using multiple applications for
communications. So there really is the ability to pretty narrowly specialize
with functions - something I think the older generation does backwards; we
want to consolidate and make services a "one stop shop."

~~~
stinos
_it 's as though they are posting not to show people stuff but to get people's
approval for what they are posting_

Yes that's what lives pretty strong in that generation - and on social media
in general, I have the impression. For some that goes really far, maybe too
far, and people become unhappy or even depressed if they are not seen/approved
by others.

Which is like in real life, but also at the same time not quite: in real life
conversations etc you show a lot of yourself because it's impossible to hide.
Facial expressions, body language, meeting pople early in the morning when
you're not at your best, on one of those days where the whole world is against
you, and so on. In virtual life however you try to make sure that side of you
doesn't show. You could call it a lie. I'm not sure if that is good, bad or
neither.

~~~
snlacks
I think that's more a quality of young people, not just "this generation."

I was probably like that once, even though I think I wasn't. I remember
everyone around me being concerned with being "liked."

More importantly, Mean Girls and Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Wonder Years
all seem that way.

Who know with kids, they make no sense in any generation. :)

~~~
nikster
Spot on. I've since forgotten about this, but at that age I do remember caring
way too much about being liked and what others thought.

It was not that I was so vain - it just seemed like a reality to me. Reality
seemed to be, you have to be cool like these guys / that guy / whoever or else
you will never have a girlfriend and never have sex and die alone.

In hindsight, that's stupid, idiotic even. But back then that was my life. And
it's still like that for teens now. Explains why I can talk to a teen and they
seem like perfectly reasonable people, except 10 minutes later they go off and
do something unimaginably stupid.

Maybe it's a sort of random mutation of our social genetic makeup - teens must
do stupid, senseless stuff, and some, randomly, discover something great
(while lots of others just embarrass or injure themselves).

------
bgun
_many have nailed this on the head. It’s dead to us._

The next few paragraphs then go on to describe Facebook as essential social
plumbing. I think an FB product manager would be delighted to hear that
Facebook is "dead" in this way.

This is _precisely_ why the most successful social network of its generation
was built, first and foremost, to be a platform rather than a cocktail party.

~~~
josu
So were Yahoo and AOL. If specialized apps start to show up, people may start
ditching FB altogether.

~~~
joshstrange
Not too sure about that. All of my friends (I'm 23) have FB and while we all
more or less hate it we wouldn't dream of not being on FB. It's the best way
to connect with someone you meet (through friends, at a bar, etc) and you
don't have to ask for a number. Just friend request, chat a little bit and if
it works out swap numbers and move to SMS.

Like your parent said I see FB as "essential social plumbing", not the most
glamorous or best but a necessity and way to connect to people before you go
"off FB" to another app or SMS to chat/interact. The only reason I "post" to
FB is b/c my Twitter posts to FB. I rarely use Twitter except from trying to
get companies attention after having them ignore support requests or not
having any other support at all. Multiple times I've used a websites/app's
built in ticketing system only to get no response. A pissed tweet a couple
days later and I've got a response within the hour... The squeaky wheel...

~~~
rando3826
> we wouldn't dream of not being on FB

And 10 years ago I wouldn't dream of not having my ICQ friends. Your dreams
are not the /most/ relevant.

~~~
dntrkv
And just because it's happened in the past does not guarantee that it will
happen again. People have been predicting the downfall of Facebook for years,
but it keeps growing.

~~~
shampine
It will, I can think of a ton of services I've used in the past that one day
you just stop logging on. You don't even remember the last day of using them,
just one day you stop. Then slowly everyone stops. (E.g., AOL, AIM, Geocities,
IRC^, MySpace, and most recently Path & Instagram).

I assume the same will happen in my life for Facebook, Reddit, Twitter, etc.
One day I will just stop.

^I use IRC for dev stuff now, but there was a good 5 years where it was no
longer a part of my life. I was a gamer who played CS in the early 2000s.

~~~
dntrkv
Obviously nothing stays around forever. But there is a big difference between
a trendy app that everyone uses for a couple years and then stops, and
Facebook, which many people don't use on a daily basis but still keep it
around because its usefulness outweighs the effort required to keep your
account. I have friends who have deleted their Facebook accounts, only to come
back a month later with a very basic account just because they need to keep in
touch with some circle of friends that they otherwise wouldn't be able to.

~~~
rando3826
Not at all obvious to the investors who value these companies at tens and
hundreds of billions of dollars. They don't expect them to dissapear in 5-10
years

~~~
dntrkv
Seeing as how Facebook has been around for over 10 years now, I don't see how
that's relevant in this case.

------
0942v8653
Here's another teenager's view on social media.

I don't have an account for any of these, and I don't want one. I have, let's
see, HN, GitHub, and Stack Exchange. Those accounts are my online identity,
which I make sure is separate from my real identity. If you want to contact
me, you can email me, or if you know me in real life, you can text me. I don't
feel smug about not having those accounts, but I'm not embarrassed either.
Maybe it's just because I don't socialize with the "normal" people my age, or
something else, but more people than you might expect understand when I say I
don't have an account. I don't want them because they would be more of a time
suck than the Internet already is, and no one really has trouble finding me.

~~~
xvedejas
I mean, you sound like a pretty typical hacker kid... which is to say, not a
typical kid that people care about when discussing things like market share or
teen trends.

------
Rainymood
20/m/europe

>In short, many have nailed this on the head. It’s dead to us. Facebook is
something we all got in middle school because it was cool but now is seen as
an awkward family dinner party we can't really leave.

What?

>Snapchat is where we can really be ourselves while being attached to our
social identity. Without the constant social pressure of a follower count or
Facebook friends, I am not constantly having these random people shoved in
front of me. Instead, Snapchat is a somewhat intimate network of friends who I
don't care if they see me at a party having fun.

I use snapchat to send funny images of myself to my girlfriend

>WhatsApp- You download it when you go abroad, you use it there for a bit
before going back to iMessage and Facebook Messenger, you delete it. I know
tons of people who use it to communicate with friends they made abroad, but I
feel like Messenger is beginning to overshadow it. For international students,
however, WhatsApp is a pivotal tool that I’ve heard is truly useful.

Back here we use WhatsApp exclusively almost, fb messenger when we must

>Tumblr is like a secret society that everyone is in, but no one talks about.
Tumblr is where you are your true self and surround yourself (through who you
follow) with people who have similar interests.

To me, tumblr is a place where hipsters post images from the internet, back on
the internet

edit: added location, might be very relevant

~~~
dublinben
WhatsApp has far fewer users in North America than every other region of the
world. It's not surprising that an American teenager studying at an American
college would have no use for it.

[http://www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2014/24497/whatsapp-
by-...](http://www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2014/24497/whatsapp-by-the-
numbers-where-its-used-most)

~~~
mst
I now know quite a few whatsapp users put I was patient zero for the local
epidemic - and I only noticed its existence because a friend of mine from .sg
introduced me to it.

(disclaimer: am in UK, am 31, don't have a lawn)

------
jinushaun
Pretty much nailed it on the head:

 _If I could break down a party for you in social media terms, here’s how it
would pan out:_

* _On Snapchat, you post you getting ready for the party, going to the party, having fun at the party, the end of the party, and the morning after the party._

* _On Facebook you post the cute, posed pictures you took with your friends at the party with a few candids (definitely no alcohol in these photos)._

* _On Instagram you pick the cutest one of the bunch to post to your network._

I said it then and I'll say it now, FB screwed up when they pivoted to copy
Twitter. FB was fun when it was more private. Zuck should've realised that
once there was a critical mass of news reports of teens getting in trouble for
stupid FB and Twitter posts, teens would dump the service.

------
hugs
Also noteworthy that Google+ didn't even get a mention, even if to mock it.

~~~
this_user
Are there people who actively use G+? To me it seems to have turned into this
weird thing that tries to offer a lot of functionality but doesn't really make
it clear what it actually is. It was supposed to be a social network and now
it's Google's "social layer" \- whatever that may mean. I personally don't
even know anyone who would describe G+ as relevant.

~~~
gambiting
The only reason why I "use" G+ is for photos - and that's only because Google
got rid of all the Picasa albums. But the interface is so horrible I can't
believe it's actually made by google. Once you got to photos it opens the most
recent album by default(why??) and the option to switch to albums view is not
where you would expect it(on the 3-stripe option icon that every other product
got us used to), but instead it's hidden away. It makes absolutely no sense
and I hate using it as a product. The only reason why I have to visit it
occasionally is that Picassa(the actual tool) is fantastic for backing up and
managing pictures.

------
fideloper
People's take on Twitter is always fascinating.

I didn't really get it at all either, until I followed people relevant to my
interests. Now I can't live without it - it's an amazing source of material.

Not sure if that translates to industries outside of tech or not. It's both a
source of learning and revenue. Having an audience on twitter literally™ makes
me money on eBook sales and other things I do. It's a great place for "organic
targeted marketing", so to speak.

------
Anechoic
Piggybacking off bcRIPster (now down voted) post, I'd be curious to know the
race of the teen author and if the preferences he observed are the same across
others with different ethnic and racial background. Among my 30-something and
40-something circle I've noticed that most of my white and Asian friends tend
to utilize Facebook more while most of my black friends tend to use Twitter
more. Instagram seems more evenly split.

~~~
eastbayjake
This is only anecdotal of course, but I taught in a 99% African-American
public high school and it seemed like most students were on Twitter. Most of
those former students are obsessed with Snapchat now -- I do get a lot of the
"I'm so bored" messages from them via My Story. I guess when you have to opt-
in to see someone's Story it doesn't feel like you're spamming someone if you
post a bunch -- your friends control the spigot.

------
swalsh
I have never felt so old reading a post :D

What I find interesting is the stark contrast to people's predictions from
years ago. I can recall the speculation about how in a world of facebook our
lives will be documented forever, and the problems that will cause. That very
real concern seems to not only have been well received, but they seem to be
taking precautions. Unexpected, but very encouraging!

~~~
fargolime
Feeling old too. I do_not_get the need to post the highlights of your day
throughout the day. It reeks of narcissism. I feel sorry for them, in my
oldness.

~~~
lazaroclapp
Well, lets put it this way, you never told your group of friends while in
school about something cool that happened and would make you look good? Many
social media interactions are that type of chatter, nothing more, but over a
different medium than speech.

~~~
fargolime
Sure I do that. But not a dozen (actually mundane) things daily, like the
teen's "I'm about to go to this cool party". Among my friends we might mention
the highlight of the week by email.

------
daigoba66
> In this part Facebook shines- groups do not have the same complicated
> algorithms behind them that the Newsfeed does. It is very easy to just see
> the new information posted on the group without having to sift through tons
> of posts and advertising you don't really care about.

That part resonates with me, and I'm not young. I was an early Facebook user
(2003-2004 when I was a college freshman) way before the news feed existed,
and way before it starting "algorithmically" filtering and sorting. I've
always hated it.

~~~
throwaway182734
Facebook wasn't even founded until February 2004, and at that time it was
limited to only Harvard University.
[https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=when+was+facebook+creat...](https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=when+was+facebook+created)

------
stinos
_The content on Instagram is usually a higher quality. People take time to
edit their photos with filters, different brightness /contrast settings, etc.
... This means the content on Instagram is normally “better” (photo-wise)_

That's the OP's personal experience of course, mine is sort of the opposite:
facebook has all sorts of crappy pictures, instagram has those as well but
made even worse by having applied all kinds of filters most of which appeal
ugly to me. Tumblr on the other hand I consider as a source for decent/pro
material (as in, actually beautiful pictures taken with proper cameras). Maybe
all this is because of who I'm following though.

------
arethuza
For another single data point I asked my 15 year old son a few months back
about what social media platforms he uses and was rather surprised to have him
answer "Facebook is for old people" \- which probably means over 20.

~~~
richsinn
What else did he say?

~~~
arethuza
Some evasive mutterings about Snapchat.

------
scottmwinters
Really interesting views on people disliking but still using Facebook. I was
walking around my college's campus a few years ago and overheard a girl saying
"well, he doesn't have a facebook, so thats kind of a huge red flag to me. I
dont think I'm going to keep talking to him" Funny what an animal social media
has become...

------
balls187
Am I in the minority by thinking a 19 year old college student is not what
people think of when they hear "teens?"

~~~
vxNsr
I felt the same way but his take seems pretty spot on for me, in Chicago all
college students use yik yak and groupme when I mention whatsapp they don't
understand why I'd want to use it over text or groupme.

------
jcrawfordor
Okay, I'm 22, that's not much older than this guy. I know a lot of 18 and 19
year olds. How does it look to me?

Facebook: most people use this primarily, but about 1 in 5 people does not
because they object to pervasive surveillance/got frustrated by the newsfeed
reordering/dislike Zuckerburg personally/are just asocial. Facebook Messenger
is the main way of communicating with people who have it. You also use it to
communicate with people who don't have Facebook Messenger by the indirection
of using Facebook Messenger to talk to someone who might have their phone
number. Instagram: I know a total of maybe two people that use this at all,
and they have their content copying to Facebook which is where most people see
it I think. Twitter: Not a lot of people use this, with the curious exception
of the Facebook objectors, who mostly use this. Snapchat: I know a few people
who use Snapchat but I don't think anyone takes it seriously. Of course that's
kind of the point. General assumption is that snapchat users are trading
dickpics and just not sharing with the rest of us. Tumblr: A lot of people are
tumblr users but in sort of a "guilty pleasure" way, you don't discuss it with
people you're trying to win the respect of. Perception is that it's mostly
[furry]porn and SJWs. Admittedly this is roughly correct. Yik Yak: Took the
campus by storm. Most people use it exclusively to either complain about
faculty, ineffectively try to find a date, or to make fun of the former two.
Openly mocked, but in the way that makes other people install the app just to
see what's being joked about, so I guess that's a social strategy. Medium:
Maybe a handful of CS majors even know what it is.

Yeah, I go to a small engineering school and my social group is primarily in
CS. I'm sure this impacts my experience a lot. This is exactly my point: I
think social media/application/etc usage is far too specific to social groups,
institutions, and even geographical areas for it to be remotely useful to work
off of anecdotes. Here Facebook is absolutely king, but I can imagine a
"trendier" population (not Engineering students) might have a certain ire for
it. I think Instagram isn't widely used just for lack of having achieved
critical mass in this particular student body, there may (and probably will)
come a day when that changes.

This is probably part of why "what teens are into" reporting seems so
ridiculous. It's based on a shallow look at one group of people, and behavior
varies far too much between groups. Broad statistical data would be far more
useful for marketing purposes, but the results would still ring hollow for
many specific peer groups.

~~~
intellegacy
Not surprised insta isn't popular among your engineering group. It's like
twitter but for photos.. it's very visual-based. a lot of artists and celebs
are on it.

also seems to be the home of pretty girls posting selfies and getting
validation from that.

it's like a cooler, more upscale version of facebook. Insta is hugely popular
from what I'm seeing

------
efa
"Facebook is dead to us but we use it for X,Y, and Z." I found this kinda
funny. Obviously it's not dead to you if you use it for a variety of purposes.
Seems like friends I have with teenage kids are mostly on Facebook. Now it may
not be their primary outlet. But "dead" seems to be a bit of an exaggeration.

~~~
danw3
"its dead to us (as a means of expressing ourselves)" is how I read that
particular quote, and it certainly resonates with me as a twenty something
male. I'm sure it's even more true for younger people. It's necessary because
of how ubiquitous it is but I'm not sure that (in the context of social media)
is necessarily good news for Facebook.

------
experimentsin
I wonder if the teens who favour Instagram and Snapchat today will
nevertheless age into people who get more out of Facebook as they get older.

When you're young, most of the people you know and think about are still right
there around you and you see them almost every day. You haven't left too many
people behind yet. But that changes quickly over time and an increasing
proportion of the people you know and care about, the ones you met at a
particular place and time in your life, are no longer close by. Being able to
keep in touch with those people's comings and goings and relationships and
family lives to the (relative) depth afforded by Facebook probably becomes
more attractive and more valuable.

So although Facebook may be losing its original stomping ground to simpler,
more targeted alternatives, perhaps both Facebook and its active user base are
maturing together.

------
simbilou
> I only know a handful of people (myself included) that believe Snapchat does
> delete your photos. Everyone else I know believes that Snapchat has some
> secret database somewhere with all of your photos on it.

It takes a special kind of stupid to even consider the idea that the photos
are _really_ deleted.

~~~
aridiculous
Well, then I guess you're calling a majority of the population (including
doctors, lawyers, artist, musicians, etc) "stupid".

What you really mean is someone who doesn't understand how technology (and
tech companies) work.

This could easily be mitigated if we enforced privacy laws saying that if you
tell someone something is deleted, then it must actually be securely deleted.
They might even be on the books already, just enforce them.

~~~
pestaa
If something goes online, it stays online. Proxies, long term caches,
archives, you name it. Relying on privacy laws of secure deletion would be the
same mistake.

Delete buttons should really be labelled as "hide stuff from everybody except
us."

------
bluedino
When I heard 'teenager' I was thinking 13/14\. Like a middle school or young
high schooler, not a college freshman.

------
supercanuck
Why is everyone seemingly falling over themselves in a rush to discredit this
guy?

~~~
puredemo
Most people on here refuse to incorporate any non-objective knowledge into
their world view. An anecdotal article like this causes malfunction.

------
VLM
He uses facebook as a directory service occasionally, the same way us "old
people" use linkedin.

Observationally my kids are a little younger than him and facebook is dead to
them. My wife is still addicted. They used to complain about family tagging
them in pix (especially embarrassing-ish such as anything from when they were
little) and now they don't even care, nobody uses it.

"Not too many people talk about it." \- thats not pinterest, thats reddit and
4chan. Everyone is on baconreader and clover, and just like fight club, rule
one is no one talks about fight club (or 4chan or reddit).

------
dysoco
17/M/Argentina

I'm not really into Social Networks, I guess you can tell by the fact that I'm
on HackerNews. However I can provide some insight in what's the panorama in
the other half of the world.

Facebook is still king, everyone uses it, everyone has it. I use it
exclusively for groups (school group, friends group) since it's easy to post
questions or info in there and make sure everyone reads it. I also use it to
chat with people (although via Pidgin, I barely go to facebook.com). I do see
however a huge ammount of traffic in my feed. So I guess it's not going
anytime soon.

Whatsapp is __hugely __popular. Everyone uses it, even for work related stuff.
I 'm not sure why it's not as popular in the US/Europe (I guess because of
iMessage?) But calls/SMS are barely a thing, everything is Whatsapp now.
Sadly, I'm not a big fan of it, it's great for sending quick messages and talk
something in a group, but people here use it for __everything __which means I
have to get my hands off the keyboard and type in a tiny touch screen to talk
with someone. You usually get randomly added to Whatsapp groups too, where you
get invited to parties and stuff like that, I 'm not a big fan of this either,
since it's really easy to miss a message. However, I reckon my social life has
improved considerably since I got Whatsapp because of all the invites I get
now.

Twitter has gotten very big lately too, I started using Twitter about 3 years
ago, and I mostly use it to follow tech people and get news, probably the same
way most of you use it. However, my friends use it as some kind of Facebook.
They tweet __everything __they are doing, and they also maintain conversations
using it. I think this is silly, I don 't know why they do it, you can know
everything about someone by just reading his Twitter feed.

Instagram is not huge but it's catching up. It's mostly used by girls and
hipster/cool/popular guys (not sure how to describe them). I never go there
and I really don't care.

Snapchat/Tumblr/YikYak are not even thing, heck, I don't even know what YikYak
is supposed to be.

I wish more people would start using IRC, but well, I guess that's not
happening.

------
tambourine_man
I wonder if I'd have a Facebook if I was a teenager today.

It's hard enough not having one now, and even though I was never one to give
in to social pressure, I wonder if it would be simply unbearable.

~~~
12423gsd
I went through college without a Facebook, but I made one shortly after
graduating and I've been using it more and more (about 3 years).

I now realize that in retrospect it was a huge mistake as I missed out on a
_lot_. I think on a certain level, if you don't have a FB, people won't make
the extra effort to try and contact you. Its most important social function is
turning acquaintances into friends

So just as a PSA, please please use Facebook. Even if you don't like it and
you think they're a horrible company, you won't appreciate how much you're
hurting yourself till it's too late

~~~
jeffwass
I never had a FB account. I'm 39 and married. Exactly what am I missing out
on?

I use email and text message for most correspondence, and have LinkedIn mainly
as a virtual Rolodex so I can get in touch with old friends and colleagues.

I don't get what I'm missing. Maybe I'm just in the wrong demographic?

~~~
VLM
I made an account back when it was popular, and used it hard for about six
months, then evaluated if it did anything for me. Answer, no, so deleted.

The kids had a fad of facebook about a year ago, they guilt tripped me into
rejoining, they used it hard for a couple months, now its dead. It was weird
because all the people who used to use FB, stopped. Its very quiet...

------
ergl
22/m/europe here

\- Facebook

Everyone uses it and there is peer pressure for you to have it. Everyone talks
about deleting their account but never does. I rarely use the website or the
app but I use Messenger everyday to talk with foreign friends (mostly in the
US)

\- Twitter

Used to have an account a few years ago, but it just wasn't my thing.
Extremely popular though its ux seems to have dropped a lot

\- Snapchat

Not really a thing, most people I know barely know it exists. Used it for a
while a year ago but it was a fad for me.

\- Tumblr

Not really a thing anymore for me, but it seems to be really popular for
people between 12-16

\- Instagram

I might be the minority here but I mainly use it for photography. Has replaced
Flickr and Tumblr for me

\- Whatsapp

#1. SMS charges were too expensive until a few years ago so it exploded (I
think we are the biggest market in europe now, so you might guess where I'm
from). Biggest downside is the lack of group control, you can get added to any
group without your permission and it is 'poor form' to leave. I have a couple
of them on mute and rarely read them.

\- Telegram

Seems to be gaining some use since Whatsapp got acquired by Facebook though I
personally don't use it. Seems redundant to have two IM apps when everyone is
on Whatsapp anyway

------
0xCMP
Models most of my use, however I like WhatsApp a lot. I used it when I still
had a Windows Phone (iPhone 6 now) and I needed a better messaging app that
went over the web than facebook because I had horrible service on campus. It's
a very capable, simple, reliable (or used to be anyways), and feature filled
messaging app which I wish more people used. iMessage does most of what
WhatsApp does though for talking to iOS users and it has a desktop app so I
use that more now.

I almost refuse to use facebook except to share select photos/videos privately
(only me + tagged people) and message people who I haven't talked to in a
while. Groups are usually never useful and I use other things.

Twitter is great, tumblr is good but not for me, snapchat isn't for me (too
obvious you're taking a photo of your self), and instagram still makes me feel
the facebook "it'll never die on the internet once uploaded" scary feeling.

------
X-combinator
_Many of those younger than me (10–16 years old) who I 've talked to about
this matter don’t even have a Facebook — Instagram is all that they need._

As a 15 year I totally agree, but Hacker News is one my favorites site because
I just love discovering new things on the web(That's the only reason I visit
HN)

Also Facebook simply "Stinks"

------
paulhebert
While an interesting article I'd take it with a grain of salt and not try to
make generalizations about others' social media use.

The author seems like he's on the high end of social media use.

As a 22 year old male I check Facebook occasionally to see what my friends and
family who live in different areas are doing, and that's about it.

------
warp_
I'm amazed how many people here say "everyone is on facebook". Edit: Maybe
it's like that because you've molded your social circles to fit those of your
own socioeconomic status?

From my closest 20 friends (all of them I've known for 5+ years), 7 use
facebook, most of them use IRC and the rest are on WhatsApp. I've never made
any new friends through facebook, as a matter of fact, the posts made by
people on facebook push them further away from me, because I'm a cynical
bastard and their shameless self-promotion is disgusting to me and I see
through their bullshit.

To me, facebook always seemed like a public display window of your life, to
show off those old high school classmates that nowadays you live in the cool
downtown hipster district and you've gotten laid. Nothing to do with actual
friendships or socializing.

24/m/finland

------
rorydh
> "Another point: tagging. I don't have to constantly check Instagram to make
> sure I wasn't tagged in any awkward or bad photos. That’s because you can't
> see them on my profile, making the whole experience seem way more private."

The fourth tab on every Instagram profile allows you to see just this...

~~~
betenoire
That's true. They do give you more control than Facebook though. More privacy
settings, and restrictions on who can tag.

[https://help.instagram.com/186952328121982/](https://help.instagram.com/186952328121982/)

------
sozh
Is NOT sharing even an option with a dozen social networks to chose from?

I wrote a response to bring up some important questions that Andrew's article
brought up.

[https://medium.com/@sozh/the-sunset-
question-1855a3ed80d](https://medium.com/@sozh/the-sunset-
question-1855a3ed80d)

------
niksethi
As a slightly younger teen (17), I have a completely different view of
Twitter. I'm not sure if it's unique to my specific area, but quite a
significant number of the people around me are on Twitter and use it to
communicate funny things they see, or just share opinions (I guess the author
approaches this with "complain/express yourself"). To me, I go on twitter to
see what people are saying about any given event, especially sporting events.
At other times, I will find memes or jokes or just anything that is somewhat
funny. Overall, the three groups that Andrew brings up aren't really complete.

------
onedev
To be fair he did say these were all just anecdotes. He just phrased the
descriptions in a way that seems "matter of fact" and everyone seems to be
taking that and running with it.

For example, as someone else in here mentioned, this is more like "A North
American Teenager's View of Social Media".

I bet he hasn't even heard of QQ, which has over 1 billion users. His lack of
understanding of WhatsApp says a lot because as someone else mentioned
WhatsApp has the least penetration in North America, but everywhere else it's
the lifeblood of online social interactions.

------
krmboya
> WhatsApp- You download it when you go abroad, you use it there for a bit
> before going back to iMessage and Facebook Messenger, you delete it. I know
> tons of people who use it to communicate with friends they made abroad, but
> I feel like Messenger is beginning to overshadow it. For international
> students, however, WhatsApp is a pivotal tool that I’ve heard is truly
> useful.

Perhaps the title should have been 'A North American Teenager's view of Social
Media'

Edit: Minor re-wording

~~~
irishloop
Fair, but probably true for predominantly all articles posted on HackerNews.
Especially in the startup culture, I feel it's pretty much assumed.

------
thomasfoster96
I really don't like these "Teenager's view of social media' type posts. All of
them make the mistake that teens only have time for two or three apps and that
the teen demographic is very homogenous. I get a little disappointed when a
post like this then gets reported as the demise of Facebook, because that's
not really an accurate observation.

Looks like I better write a response post.

------
omg_ketchup
I'm 30 and I use GChat/Google Talk/Hangouts (they're all the same thing) all
the time. So does almost everyone I know. Haven't seen it mentioned here.

We don't really care if that data gets exposed to/by the NSA. It's mostly like
"I'm off today whats up" or "Want to hit the bar after work?" type stuff.

------
k__
In Germany I got the feeling that most younger people rather use WhatsApp for
its group functionality, than Facebook.

------
eastbayjake
> "I have yet to ever hear of a hot post on Secret that everyone’s talking
> about"

I get the feeling Secret's redesign strategy is just being Yik-Yak for the
post-college crowd. I'd imagine the location data is more valuable/marketable
for working people in big metro areas than incomeless students.

------
the_duck
>The only time I ever hear this application is for the joke, “Aye you got
Kik?”, normally seen as someone trying to “spit game” to attract a partner.
It’s really difficult for me to describe it here but it isn't super relevant.

This paragraph is mystifying. Can someone explain what he's talking about
here?

~~~
krallja
The only time the author hears about Kik is in the quoted joke. In the joke,
the admirer asks the object of their affection if they are a user of Kik,
rather than asking directly for their contact information. Kik is really
difficult for the author to describe on Medium. Luckily, Kik isn't super
relevant to the author.

------
FollowSteph3
I wonder how the usage progresses as you age. What's important at 15,20,25,
and beyond are different. Not different demographics but the same people as
they age through the different demographics. In other words how consistent
would the diffeent media options change with time....

------
hellbanner
Another anecdote for file: I spoke with an early-twenty business student, also
studying in Texas. Snapchat and GroupMe were their preferred chat programs.

I personally prefer WeChat for its Group Voice chat. This was developed in
Shenzhen; Mandarin is notably tonal so voice is a selling point.

------
zeeshanm
I can see why group service is popular among teenage crowd these days. One of
my friends who is in school has college wide fb group to ask questions about
classes, etc. I have seen her mostly being active in groups when logged into
fb.

------
brianstorms
My response:

A 1980 Teenager's View on Social Media
[https://medium.com/@brianstorms/a-1980-teenagers-view-of-
soc...](https://medium.com/@brianstorms/a-1980-teenagers-view-of-social-media-
eaf8a5fdbf6c)

------
harisamin
This is actually a really refreshing post. I have to give Yik Yak another try.
Secret didn’t do much for me. But its always important and interesting for
peeps to see what’s going on, even if we’re getting old :)

------
chki
It is interesting to see that for example in Germany WhatsApp is really the
most important chat and group discussion instrument -- ahead of all other
messengers. I wonder where this difference comes from...?

~~~
frik
For teenagers in Europe, WhatsApp is #1. As FB is used by their parents and
grandparents, it got uncool.

But recently Snapchat is heading to get #1 as now their parents are using
WhatsApp too.

The same happened with MySpace. FB is like the late MySpace, everyone is on
it, mainly some late adopters still regularly post new baby & cat pics - the
difference is FB might be too big to fail, and can innovate or buy new
services (Instagram, WhatsApp).

------
Matth3wMarshall
Wow, this is the truth! I hope the product guys at these places are reading.

------
ajcarpy2005
I'm surprised that with all those less popular social networks listed, Google+
was not. I'm pretty sure Google+ has a higher user 'population' than YikYak,
WhatsApp, GroupMe, etc.

~~~
koyote
WhatsApp has over 700 million users and I'd bet a much higher percentage of
active users than G+ (although that is just a guess).

I have not even heard of the others though until now.

------
neue
The Twitter point doesn't make much sense.

As a senior in high school, I see nearly everyone having a twitter account and
using it pretty often. It's pretty popular.

------
Maken
Reading this article makes me feel old. I'm just on my twenties and the only
service mentioned in that article in which I have an account is WhatsApp.

------
dgcoffman
Just tried Yik Yak after reading this. In SF's FiDi, appears to be mostly
dudes looking for gay hookups. Am I doing it wrong?

~~~
nosequel
It just takes posts from 10 miles around your location. If you are in a
location with primarily homosexual population, I'd imagine you'd get mostly
posts like you did.

I live near a university, so all I see is drinking, smoking, classes, roommate
drama, and hookups.

~~~
azinman2
SF doesn't have a "primarily" gay population. It might be higher than other
cities on average, but it's by no means the majority and certainly not in the
financial district.

My guess is here there's isn't much for office workers to be sharing with
strangers -- it's kind of a weird premise unless there's some specific city
wide event like a parade or a terrorist attack. Thus the next logical reason
for (gay male) strangers to interact is to hookup.

------
hnriot
Just shows how shrewd Zuck was in acquiring Instagram.

This post is exactly in line with what I see my daughter and her peers doing.

------
huangwei_chang
I am curious that if they don't write things about them on FB, how could they
find out who one is on FB?

------
revelation
An _American_ Teenager's View on Social Media

There, much better now.

~~~
Anthony-G
A _North_ American Teenager's View on Social Media

Even better. Though I'm sure someone from North America could improve on that
title.

FWIW, I thought it was a very well-written piece which outlined some of the
subjective pros and cons of various social media. As someone who doesn't spend
any time on any of the social network sites and who barely uses a smart-phone,
I found it to be quite informative.

Edit: After posting this comment, I used a search for the word "North" and saw
that quite a few other commentators had already made the same observation.

~~~
falsestprophet
American is predominantly used to mean a US national or more generally "a
person born, raised, or living in the U.S."

Canadians, who are "North Americans," are predominantly culturally similar to
Americans.

Mexicans, who are also "North Americans", are not culturally so similar to
Americans.

So your deliberate "confusion" about the word American produced an even
sillier result: "A North American (excluding Mexicans) Teenager's View on
Social Media"

~~~
Anthony-G
Fair enough. I tend to consider Mexico as Central America so I was thinking of
Canada and the US as North America. For what it's worth, I live on the other
side of the Atlantic - and it's been a long time since I did geography in
primary school.

------
bcRIPster
While it's an interesting article, I think he's being a bit hyperbolic in
translating his local experience out to a generalization.

This isn't simply a 19 year olds experience. It is a white, suburban, middle-
class, male attending a conservative university in a culturally regressive
state. If nothing else, he's about as radically distant from an urban minority
as you could get to the point where I'd imagine it is really impossible for
him to have any perspective into other demographics and how they use these
tools. I value his opinion, but it's important to take it into context.

Atleast he attempts to hedge his lack of experience in his opening statement.

~~~
bcRIPster
Ok mods, I'm concerned that I have made some valid criticisms on this article
as have others in their comments, yet mine is being down modded into
negatives.

I'm left feeling this is immature and punitive for a joke I made on a prior
news posting where I complained about the down modding.

Would someone like to explain just how my criticism is so much more severe as
to warrant attack over the other criticisms?

~~~
humanrebar
> attending a conservative university in a culturally regressive state

I didn't downvote you, but I feel like I could have without any guilt. Have
you _been_ to Austin? Or any urban center in Texas? They are probably more
conservative than Berkeley, but they're definitely blue areas. Especially
Austin. I mean, Houston's mayor is a lesbian! See if you can pick out Dallas,
Austin, and Houston on this map:

[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/be/2004_US_e...](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/be/2004_US_elections_purple_counties.png)

And substance aside, terms like "culturally regressive" are unnecessary and
inflammatory. And your post has an overall dismissive attitude of someone who
is just expressing himself. He makes it extremely clear that it's just his
opinion.

So maybe there is a downvote brigade, but I'm not in it. And they're redundant
if you ask me.

~~~
bcRIPster
No. Honestly I haven't been to Austin and I have heard good things about it
but I did spend a few years living in the DFW Metroplex area (Arlington and
then later in Plano). I have on the other hand have had bad personal
experiences with UT graduates being rather full of themselves clueless about
the real world. As well as white middle-class 19 year olds thinking they're
social media experts because they posted a blog post.

Texas in general has always left a bad taste in my mind and their political
and religious exports don't do much to change my opinion.

I always love how Austin get's thrown out as some amazing counter to excuse
the rest of the state.

~~~
Morgawr
>As well as white middle-class 19 year olds thinking they're social media
experts because they posted a blog post.

From the article: >That being said, I'm not an expert at this by a long shot
and I'm sure there will be data that disproves some of the points I make, but
this is just what I've noticed.

He clearly states otherwise.

~~~
bcRIPster
All that proves is that his Journalism instructor told him to be sure to
include boilerplate CYA to deflect criticism of his article. If he really felt
this way he wouldn't be so declarative of his opinions.

------
kmicklas
20 year old college student in the US here. He got a lot of things very right,
but also from my experience some things very wrong:

Instagram: No one uses it. Maybe 10% of students have one and those that do
spend little time on it.

Facebook: It's not as uncool as it sounds. If anything it's had a resurgence
lately. Maybe people post less content to their profile these days, but post
on each other's timelines and use the messaging system more than ever. As
smartphones and connectivity continue to improve, there's less and less
incentive to use texting over Facebook. Also, I don't know what he's talking
about with groups. No one uses those.

Snapchat: I would say it is currently the biggest one. (People spend more
_time_ on Facebook but _care_ more about Snapchat.) However it seems to be
losing momentum at this point. Since introducing the story feature, there has
been a constant and continuous shift away from the original, more personal
uses and towards a more Twitter like document of daily occurrences through
stories. Less back and forth dialogue, less creative art, etc. People are also
fed up with ads and gimmicks like messaging and sending money (???).

GroupMe: Never heard of anyone using anything but Facebook for this purpose.

Venmo: Not sure if it really qualifies as a social network but it's trying to
and it deserves mention. Everyone loves documenting their restaurant
expenditures and there seems to be a strong culture of wittiness in generating
the captions.

------
RandallBrown
This kid doesn't even know that when he uses WhatsApp or Instagram, he's using
Facebook.

~~~
smackfu
Facebook the product vs. Facebook the company.

------
javajosh
I find this all exceedingly strange - why should we care about a teenager's
opinions, right or wrong? Kids don't make money, and they spend relatively
small amounts of parent/student-loan money. Moreover, all signs point to a
difficult job market for new graduates, kids moving back home for extended
periods, etc, so the argument that they will _soon_ spend money doesn't
resonate. Why then is this demographic so coveted? Heck why do these kids have
smartphones at all?

I begin to suspect that youth-obsessed culture is actually a temporary
phenomena. The reason it happened in the 90's and 00's was that this was the
dawn of the consumer internet, and college kids were the first adopters (a
fact that is itself a confluence of educational theory and the
enthusiasm/capability of computer science academics)

Against this, we could say that college kids are a better demo for this stuff
because they are so _pure_ , in the sense that they aren't constrained by jobs
or other income production - so they are at a magical junction between
_articulate_ and _irresponsible_ , like having a society of our own "id"s
running around. If we can please them in their primordial state, then surely
that will have resonance in the hearts of the middle-aged who's youthful lusts
still exist under rocky layers of life's harsh requirements.

------
jolid
I like that he's less concerned with a company storing his Social Security
Number (or credit card, name, address... things governments/companies ALREADY
HAVE) than the photos and thoughts he's choosing to share only with his
closest friends.

Dunno how to quote: I only know a handful of people (myself included) that
believe Snapchat does delete your photos. Everyone else I know believes that
Snapchat has some secret database somewhere with all of your photos on it.
While I will save that debate for another day, it is safe to say that when
photos are “leaked” or when there’s controversy about security on the app, we
honestly do not really care. We aren't sending pictures of our Social Security
Cards here, we're sending selfies and photos with us having 5 chins

