New York City Millenials: 'Facebook Is Just A Thing Our Parents Have'
A 13-year-old New Yorker named Ruby Karp blogged at Mashable about her fascination at why kids her age, or the so-called 'young millennials' are losing their interest in the world's most famous social media platform, Facebook.
She begins her statement by describing that most of her friends have their own social networks, which include Instagram, Vine, Snapshot and many others.
"Facebook used to be all I could talk about when I was younger. “Mom, I want a Facebook!” and other whining only a mother could put up with.
"But now, at 13, I’ve been noticing something different. Facebook is losing teens lately, and I think I know why," she said.
It was the rise of other social networks that allowed today's younger generation to explore other venues to express themselves without the restriction of age limit, and one of them is Instagram.
"Now, when we are old enough to get Facebook, we don’t want it. By the time we could have Facebooks, we were already obsessed with Instagram. Facebook was just this thing all our parents seemed to have."
Karp's friends think that Facebook "was a waste of time". She opened her own Facebook account but realised that "it is useless without friends".
"My only friend is, like, my grandma."
Karp soon realised that teens, their generation, is more interested at what's trending. If a certain 'thing' is not trending, like Facebook, teens won't care.
The latter part of her entry is a mature assessment, a thing that adults could relate to, at how Facebook and Twitter have become "a huge marketing mouthpiece".
"Facebook takes your interests based on what you’ve "liked" and put ads on your feed. No offense, but when I’m looking through my News Feed I don’t really care about Pantene’s new product."
"Facebook has been trying too hard. Teens hate it when people try too hard; it pushes them away. It’s like if my mom told me not to do something — I immediately need to do it. When she forces something on me, I really don’t want to do it."
Karp is not ashamed to admit that she still loves Facebook despite its changes. She hopes that it will soon get back its appeal among her generation.
According to a report by Policymic in March, "Tumblr proved to be outpacing Facebook, with the broadest stretch among the teens 13-18. Sixty-one percent of this younger demographic indicated using Tumblr, compared to 55% of Facebook. Snapchat and Instagram also appear to be more toward teen's liking than young adults following high school graduation."
One of the reasons why teens spend most of their time in social media sites like Tumblr or Instagram is because of its 'simple, direct and tidy interfaces which so far aren't teeming with blatant ads and marketing," Policymic wrote.