Is Facebook getting old? According to a recent survey from Roiworld, an online gaming site, the answer may be “kind of.”
The survey, titled “Teens & Social Networks Study,” came to some conclusions after surveying 600 teens between the ages of 13-17 (half boys, half girls). One of its findings is that on average, online teens in the U.S. say they spend 2 hours and 20 minutes a day on the Internet, and that 80 percent, or 1 hour and 50 minutes, of this time is spent on a social network.
This means each week teens average 16 hours and 24 minutes online, and 12 hours and 54 minutes of this time is spent on social networking sites.
While Facebook has clearly dominated the social networking landscape, 19 percent of teens who have a profile on the site say “they no longer visit Facebook” or “are using it less than they did a year ago.” Roiworld dubs this “Facebook Fatigue.”
Of this fatigued segment, 29 percent said their usage of Facebook began to decrease last month, 20 percent said it began to drop off 2-3 months ago and 18 percent said it started to slump 4-6 months ago.
Why are teens getting turned off to Facebook? Sixteen percent say it’s because “my parents joined,” while 14 percent said there are “too many adults/older people.” The leading reason was that the teens lost interest or found Facebook to be boring (45 percent).
Privacy isn’t as big a concern for these young users, as 13 percent of them said their declining use of the site is due to being “uncomfortable with people seeing my personal stuff.”
Of these teens on social networks, 43 percent say they have spent money on or in a social network. Most of these teens spent money on purchasing currency in a game for a virtual item (15 percent) or accessories for their avatar in a game (14 percent). Just 7 percent said they purchased a virtual gift.
For those teens that haven’t purchased anything, no access to a credit card (34 percent) or their parents’ disapproval of the transactions (32 percent) were the leading reasons.
Ninety percent of teens have a profile or use at least one social network, with 78 percent having created a profile on Facebook – 69 percent say they have a profile and use it, while 9 percent say they have/had one but stopped using it.
YouTube followed behind with 64 percent who said they have a profile and use it, while 15 percent say they have/had one but stopped using it.
MySpace was third in terms of the percentage of teen users who have an active profile, followed by Twitter, Windows Live Spaces, Pandora, Gaia Online and Club Penguin.
Facebook has become the leading online gaming spot for teens, according to Roiworld. The mean gaming hours per week on Facebook was 7.0, followed by Maplestory with 6.8, Gaia Online with 6.7 and MySpace with 6.1. Zynga followed behind with 4.8.
A recent survey from the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that 85 percent of respondents said they think the Internet has been a positive influence on social relations and will continue to be.
Sources:</strong
http://mashable.com/2010/06/30/teens-social-networks-study/
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/posttech/2010/07/users_only_beginning_to_unders.html
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