
How Teens Really Use Apps - weitingliu
http://blog.testmunk.com/how-teens-really-use-apps/
======
ryanSrich
As a 25 yeah old I feel like I've completely missed this second wave of social
media.

\- Facebook is all old people that post horribly made memes and highly
ignorant content.

\- Tumblr is...what is tumblr again?

\- No one I know uses Snapchat...plus what would I even send to other people
"hey, bro! check out this cool bowl of cereal I'm eating".

\- I've been with my significant other for 6 years so tinder, etc. is
something I've never had to use.

\- I do use Twitter.

\- I also use instagram but only as an artistic outlet, not just random photos
of daily life. I have a clear strategy for how I use my instagram account.

\- I browse reddit but most of the time the quality of the content is
extremely low.

\- I use more industry specific social media like Github and Dribbble but are
those even considered social media? Is HN social media?

~~~
nosuchthing
\- Facebook is infact full of old people. People are stuck using it because
most people have it.

\- Tumblr is twitter with better photo/video/audio focus, and no 128 char
limit.

\- Snapchat is a messaging program with a 'in the moment' or 'hey check out
what's going on over here' type focus. Sorta sharing a portal into your
current situation with friends.

\- Reddit works better if you unsubscribe from the +100,000 subscriber
reddits. Signal:Noise degrades with the larger groups. Smaller niche or
alternative subreddits work much better.

~~~
Thriptic
> \- Facebook is infact full of old people. People are stuck using it because
> most people have it.

Yeah, and most people I know really only use it for chat, and only out of
convenience.

I will occasionally use FB to post pictures and content to curate my public
image in case people want to search for me, and most of the people I see on
news feed appear to be doing the same thing. The rest are posting stupid
content which they will regret making public in 10 years.

Personally, I'm still trying to find a social networking tool which provides
truly transient, private communication which is securely deleted and not
logged or mined by the company providing the service. Snapchat seems to come
closest to this model, but the fact that it is limited to mobile and it's weak
encryption prevent it from being used for actually meaningful conversations.

~~~
skbz
try diaspora. its missing a chat service, but skype and others cover that.
missing a photo management service, but no possibility of security sweeps on
account of its distributed nature. No adverts or spam and secure as you want,
you only share with whatever aspect you like, public, private or with groups..
Simple

~~~
retrojoe
Diaspora, much as I like the concept, is full of woo and crazy.

------
Grue3
Flawed methodology. If you use Instagram 21% of the time, Facebook 20% of the
time, and other apps less than that, the study puts you firmly into Instagram
bucket despite you using Facebook with the similar frequency. There is no
accounting for people who use more than one app, which is what most people do.

------
danso
I'm old so I've missed the Snapchat wave...but I've slowly been getting into
Instagram, after having initially dismissed it since I used to spend enough
time on Flickr. Most of the students I know use Instagram regularly, as do
many of my friends my age, even the ones who were once big FB users and have
since dropped out.

I like Instagram's "feel", and I imagine Snapchat's is similar. Its main point
of sharing is tied to a low-friction hardware feature (using the mobile
camera, then picking a filter) and so just posting something, anything, is
easy. Unlike a banal Tweet, a banal Instagram photo just sits there to be
looked at, and so you don't have to worry too much about being judged harshly
(with Twitter, most novices fear that the format constrains their "deep"
thoughts to superficialities...which is partially true)...And even if photos
are worth a thousand words, their domain is relatively constrained. It's hard
to stumble onto political/divisive content the way you can on Facebook or
Twitter, and there's less room for content-sharers to bloviate about their
lives (since some of them are confident in their visual skill to think that
their photo alone says it all). You can just lazily browse the stream,
contribute something if you feel like it, then get back to life. So for an
older generation that grew up in the age when blogging was hot...there's a
kind of appeal in having online social networks being so loose and
"shallow"...then you can get back to real life and not be so obsessed over how
all of your high school friends are now married with two beautiful babies and
living in a perfect house according to their Facebook feed.

The effect of this ephemeralness is probably different to the younger crowd,
though, who may have less incentive/discipline to peel away from their phones.

------
sixothree
I really don't understand why teens would need facebook, and why people are
always surprised they don't use it more. They see most of their friends on a
daily basis. They have different communication needs. Maybe once they get to
college I would expect that to change.

~~~
antjanus
Former teen here. When I was a teen, we used MySpace and slowly transitioned
to facebook. So why did I spend so much time on it despite basically adding
only people I saw at school?

\- you don't see people every day at school. or if you do, your time is
limited with them \- texting gets you so far but facebook is not a direct
communication channel anyways, never was. It's a "let me tell everyone
something!" type of thing. MySpace was the same thing \- FB/MySpace let you
post pictures. Sending pics is _still_ cumbersome and you can't just "blast
it". Instagram, obviously, is better at that and definitely my new app of
choice (and SnapChat too but Snapchat has less of my friends on it).

Idk, just some thoughts.

~~~
ohitsdom
"Former teen here" is my new self-introduction in all settings.

------
UUMMUU
The Tumblr part where the kids are saying "I'm a huge nerd" or "I'm a big
geek" made me unnecessarily angry. Why did being a nerd have to become a
trendy thing? I remember when my love of C++ and Calculus wasn't something to
brag about. I guess I'm just old.

~~~
joezydeco
I don't think it's a trendy thing, I think the etymology of the word "nerd"
has evolved to mean that you have a deep and detailed understanding of a
particular subject.

Perhaps Tumblr, in the eyes of teens, has a steeper learning curve than
spewing out pictures with Instagram/Snapchat and being adept with the platform
indicates you have better technical capabilities.

Either way, I don't think it's a bad thing that the word "nerd" has changed in
this manner.

~~~
slayed0
Are you silently protesting the spelling of tumblr or was that just a typo?

~~~
joezydeco
Just a typo. I fixed it.

------
patejam
I think it's important to remember that Instagram is a part of Facebook. That
bumps their market share up quite a bit.

~~~
guava
WhatsApp is also owned by Facebook and this will further bump up their market
share.

------
kawliga
Images like that concert photo really are unnerving. Instead of actually just
having fun, people have become more concerned with letting everyone know how
much "fun" they're having. It's so strange to me. "See how cool I am? Aren't I
special?!?!"

~~~
grkvlt
Or, people _are_ actually having fun, and want to share and remember the
experience. The two are not mutually exclusive, and most people enjoy looking
back on a video or picture they took at a (possibly shared) event or
experience, and can recreate or re-experience it that way. I think your
cynical 'Aren't I special' motivation is going to be way off the mark for most
of those people at the concert. How can you be special in a crowd of tens of
thousands doing exactly the same thing?

~~~
nosuchthing
There's definitely a certain breed of people who get off more on showing other
people that they're AT a concert/event rather then participating in the
experience of the event.

It's evident that some people express little interest in the music being
played, but rather enjoy taking selfies with the artists in the background.

~~~
grkvlt
I disagree. There are _possibly_ a vanishingly small number of those people
but, due to the high cost of concert tickets and the duration of concerts, I
am pretty confident in asserting that 'selfies' taken there are merely a side-
issue, and people are there because they are interested in the music and the
experience. And of course the concert-goers want to record themselves _and_
the artists, the same way you might take a holiday photograph of yourself in
front of a famous attraction.

I really dislike this cynical attitude, it almosts sounds like 'these people
aren't enjoying the concert _properly_ the way I would, becuase they're taking
photographs, therefore they _must_ be there _solely_ to take those
photographs, and therefore they are inferior to me.'

~~~
nosuchthing
There's a wide variety of people and motives at play, and there's not cynicism
in taking note of folks who are out to collect instagramable moments.

Just as many people find it more enjoyable to play with their phone instead of
paying attention to their local environment, there are people who find it more
enjoyable to broadcast "Look at me, I was here", rather than participate
locally (many often do both, but there's a noticeable amount of folks who
don't participate and only document, be it photographers, or selfie
obsessives). Taggers share the same mentality. Also concerts and events in my
city are often free, so it attracts a more casual audience who's bored enough
to have left their house and yet not invested enough in the event to be
engaged or participating.

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zxcvvcxz
It's mind-blowing how much money and value is creating from teenagers wasting
time.

~~~
wongarsu
What do you consider "wasting time"? All the apps listed can be used in
productive ways: Facebook and Snapchat can be used for communication with
peers, not unlike talking in person but with less scheduling overhead; Twitter
can be used as a quick communication network both for news and for efficient
contact with a wider circle of acquaintances; Tumblr and Reddit can be used
both as news sites, for acquiring advice from a wide range of people and for
broadening your understanding of the world.

Of course all those services can be misused as well and can become wastes of
time or even be detrimental (for example Tumblr and Reddit are famous for
their possibility of creating very powerful echo chambers). But for all I know
those teenagers could be using their time much better than I did at their age.

------
techaddict009
No Whatsapp in survey! Strange.

~~~
soneca
It is not very used in US. This is the danger of relying too much on US tech
press and bloggers, when there are more and more trends and use cases common
all over the world, except US.

A very interesting thread is Whatsapp acquisition news. Lot of US HNers were
shocked with its value; but a lot of people from a lot of other places just
knew whatsapp as THE ONLY messaging tool that matters in their respectives
countries (and that in a lot of very different countries).

Edit, said thread:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7266618](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7266618)

~~~
techaddict009
Ah! Whatsapp kind of main source of communication in India atleast this days.

~~~
soneca
In Brazil too. Being used to get in touch with strangers too now, just like
your cellphone number. Business contacts, flirts, everything.

One of the biggest mobile service provider here (TIM) is betting big,
advertising a mobile plan that gives you unlimited internet usage through
Whatsapp. Everything else has a usage quota, internet through Whatsapp is
unlimited (and I wouldn't be surprise if Whatsapp is not paying a penny for
this kind of advertising)

~~~
techaddict009
Yeah even in India many operators provide such packages for whatsapp and
facebook.

But I think it kinds of breaks net neutrality!

------
ams6110
tl;dr: Teens follow fads.

------
tsunamifury
I'm going to ask:

Why do we care what teens use?

\- They don't make significant purchase decisions

\- Ad-views are mostly wasted on them

\- The interactions and contexts they like at their age, they likely grow out
of before you can monetize the longterm relationships

Why are we chasing after the teenage fools gold. Owning a communications
channel that is used by adults making significant purchasing decisions on a
regular basis while doing work via you channel seems to be _infinitely_ more
valuable.

~~~
bhayden
I have a website for a video game that probably appeals to a lot of age
groups, but the content is overwhelmingly generated by teenagers. I think it's
safe to safe that a TON of the content on reddit, especially default subs,
meme subs, and stuff like /r/atheism, is largely also made by teenagers.

Even though they aren't useful viewers for ads or spending any money, it's
important to understand the people that generate a large chunk of your site's
content.

~~~
tsunamifury
So teens are a vangaurd that is needed to attract 20's and 30's who will
actually spend money?

I don't think that adds up. 20's and 30's will use things like Tinder,
Craiglist, eBay, etc that meet their needs and... generate useful outputs for
both parties.

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KFW504
They may not use it in the same way, but the fact that they are using them to
make life decisions is pretty huge:

[http://time.com/3762067/college-acceptance-instagram-high-
sc...](http://time.com/3762067/college-acceptance-instagram-high-school/)

------
auganov
Were people actually asked "Facebook" instead of "Facebook or Messenger"?

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coldcode
Teens are a separate subspecies of human. Eventually they metamorphose into
adults. Trying to write apps to appeal to both is an exercise in frustration.

------
Lawtonfogle
No Kik? Of the few really young mobile phone users I know who use social
media, that and instagram are their go to apps.

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throwaway_97
How Teens in USA Really Use Apps

