Joan Jones, wtop.com
WASHINGTON – Teenagers aren’t as crazy about Facebook as they used to be. So where are they going online?
According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the Pew Research Center finds most teens still have a Facebook account, but they rarely use it. The researchers say teens are leaving the site because too many parents have joined Facebook to follow their kids and there is too much drama on the social networking site.
So what is hot now? Teens are microblogging on Twitter and Tumblr. Larry Magid, technology analyst for CBS, says picture sharing is also big for teens and they are using Instagram and Snapchat to do so.
“Snapchat … is that service where you take a picture or a video and it disappears in 10 seconds, so kids can have a lot of fun with that,” Magid says.
Another popular site for teens to goof around on is Ask FM.
“It’s a site where kids can ask questions and sometimes it’s a magnet for bullying, ’cause kids will say ‘How do I look?’ and they’ll get some answers that are not so pleasing,” he says.
Foreign services are rising in popularity, too. WeChat is based in China, but U.S. teens are connecting with teens from around the world on the service.
If you plan on following your teens to these new sites, don’t get too cozy, Magid advises.
“My guess is that if we have this conversation a year from now, we’ll be talking about other sites, apps or services that we don’t even know about today,” he says.
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