Teenagers Are Starting To ‘Unlike’ Facebook

It seems teens today are beginning to think that Facebook is about as cool as Myspace. I can’t say I really blame them. I find myself having to block relatives off my news feed all the time. Not that I don’t want to know what’s going on in their lives, but I really don’t care what they made for dinner last night or to see pictures of the new blanket someone crocheted.

Time reports that teens are using the site less and lessand are more drawn to other social media platforms such as Twitter, Tumblr and Instagram.  The reason behind this may be that Facebook users cover all age groups and kids are sick of having their parents liking all their status updates, seeing their pictures and being able to keep a cyber eye on them.

Facebook is aware of this shift and mentioned younger users not using the site as often in its annual 10K report released in February:

We believe that some of our users, particularly our younger users, are aware of and actively engaging with other products and services similar to, or as a  substitute for, Facebook. For example, we believe that some of our users have  reduced their engagement with Facebook in favor of increased engagement with other products and services such as Instagram. In the event that our users  increasingly engage with other products and services, we may experience a  decline in user engagement and our business could be harmed.

Facebook does own Instagram. which is very popular with teens. But the hope is that when kids get older, they will go back to Facebook. Even so, there will inevitably come a time when snapchatting and hashtagging just isn’t cute anymore. #AmIRight?

(photo: Annette Shaff / Shutterstock)