Facebook is one of the most popular social networking sites when it comes to usage by teenagers. However, a new study exposes that the truth may be far from what people believe. The study reveals that Facebook no longer the most popular Social Networking Site in this age group. In fact, both Snapchat and Instagram rank higher in terms of popularity than the Mark Zuckerberg owned service.
What the study shows
The study was conducted by a team of researchers from eMarketer, who also revealed that the monthly use of Facebook in teens in the US and the UK would decrease more rapidly this year than it did last year.
In the age group of 12 to 17 years, the usage of Facebook per month will drop by 3.4 percent to just 14.5 million people this year. In 2016, this decrease was around 1.2 percent. 2017 will be the first time that Facebook will experience two successive years of a drop in usage among teenagers.
For the UK, the survey team did not provide the exact numbers by which the Facebook users per month will decrease but nonetheless reveals that the drastic reduction will be felt in that country as well. For users aged 12 to 17, the monthly use of the site will fall by 2.8 percent. Similarly, for those aged 18 to 24 will also reduce the usage and Facebook will experience 3.1 percent less footfall for this section per month.
Some good news for Facebook is that even though the teens are starting to reduce the usage of the social media platform, they are then turning to Instagram, which is also owned by Facebook. However, eMarketer states that more than Facebook and Instagram, the teens are starting to increase their usage of Snapchat. The survey also predicts that teens usage of Snapchat would overtake teen usages in both Facebook and Instagram by the end of 2017, which will be the first time that Snapchat has managed to do so.
Why is there a sudden reduction of teen usage in Facebook?
According to the study members at eMarketer, the decrease in usage from teens in Facebook and the subsequent increase in Instagram and Snapchat is mainly due to the way that teens nowadays communicate with each other. This age group uses the visual medium more than it uses the written form to communicate with their friends and family.
This visual medium is more readily available in Snapchat and Instagram. The survey also predicts that teen users of Snapchat and Instagram would grow by 25.8 percent and 23.8 percent by the end of 2017, respectively.
