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Facebook Has Gone From Cool to Banal For Teenagers

Facebook Has Gone From Cool to Banal For Teenagers

by Yash Saboo June 14 2018, 7:10 pm Estimated Reading Time: 3 mins, 8 secs

A new study by Pew Research Center says that teenagers don't prefer Facebook anymore. In 2015, Pew Research Center found that 71 percent of 13 to 17-year-olds said they used Facebook, while around half used Instagram and 41 percent used Snapchat. Now, just 51 percent of teens say they use Facebook. The same teens use Instagram (72 percent) and Snapchat (69 percent) to stay connected online.

“The social media environment among teens is quite different from what it was just three years ago", research associate Monica Anderson, the lead author of the report, said in a statement. "Back then, teens' social media use mostly revolved around Facebook. Today, their habits revolve less around a single platform."

Source: Huffington

This is true. My day revolves around several social media apps and I keep switching from one to another. And I am pretty sure that's how it is with everybody else.

In regards to whether social media is good or bad for those that use it, teens don't really land one way or the other. While 31 percent reported a mostly positive effect and 24 percent a mostly negative effect, around 45 percent said they didn't think social media had a positive or negative impact. Those reporting a more positive view noted how social media helps users connect to friends and family while those believing it to have a negative impact pointed to bullying and rumour-spreading on social media sites.

What’s more interesting is the fact that even though teens say no to Facebook, no such change has been seen when it comes to video games. One major aspect of social media use that continues to grow among all groups, especially males, is the use of video games. In fact, more and more people indulge in video games whether on a gaming console, cell phone or PCs.

According to the study, “84% of teens say they have or have access to a game console at home, and 90% say they play video games of any kind (whether on a computer, game console or cell phone).” Indians going crazy around the newest games on the video game block – PUBG and Fortnite – is proof enough.

According to an article by The Indian Express, PUBG introduced its game last year and it became a huge hit as players embraced the Hunger Games-style concept in which 100 players race to kill each other until there’s a sole survivor. But the game’s features have been embraced by rivals, prompting earlier legal action. Fortnite has a similar concept of 100 people competing with each other but differs by letting players build fortifications similar to Minecraft and using more cartoon-like graphics aimed at younger players.

We have seen popular games like Angry Birds, Candy Crush, Subway Surfers and Temple Run take over people's mind before. As far as I know, these games were the first ones to become widely popular when Android was newly launched in India. These apps were found in every android owner's app tray. The craze is even bigger this time!

PUBG has seen its popularity fall as Fortnite’s has risen. In February, Epic Games announced it had reached 3.4 million concurrent Fortnite players, topping PUBG’s record of 3.3 million achieved in early January, according to data site SteamDB. Since then, PUBG’s player count has fallen by half to about 1.5 million. On Tuesday, PUBG had around 27,000 viewers on streaming platform Twitch, about a tenth of Fortnite’s 260,000. More than half of Fortnite watchers were tuned in to popular streamer Ninja, a former PUBG player who ditched it for Fortnite earlier this year.

Meanwhile, a question pops into my mind. With more interesting and coming of age social media websites, will Facebook be the next Orkut? I hope not.




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