How Young Teens Use Social Media Differently than Older Teens
When discussing social media and the trends, it is important to know the different demographics that use the channel and why. Often times teens get put into the same demographic, but it is important to discuss how younger teens use social media differently than older teens, social media changes so often that younger teens may use different social media sites than older teens and may use it for different things. In order to find out how teens use social media differently I interviewed 13-year-old Shelby and 19-year-old Sam. Shelby will be a freshman at Veterans high school in Warner Robins, GA in the fall and Sam will be Sophomore at Auburn University in Auburn, AL. I conducted these interviews through text message, something that both of these teens were very familiar with.
Let’s start with the interview with Shelby:
Q: What social media sites do use?
A: I use Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook.
Q: Why do you use those ones?
A: I use them because they help me talk to people and connect with them.
Q: Between those, which one is your favorite?
A: Probably Snapchat.
Q: Why would you say that is your favorite?
A: I use it the most and it’s probably the easiest to out of the three.
Q: When did you get your first social media account?
A: 3 years ago.
Q: Would you say that you communicate with your friends more through texting or social media?
A: Social Media.
Q: Awesome. How do you think your social media behavior has changed over the last few years?
A: It has certainly gotten a lot more adapted to how tough social media can be.
Q: How do you think social media has gotten tougher over the years?
A: People have learned how to be meaner and say stuff online that they would never say in person
Q: I definitely agree that is a big issue in social media. Have you ever personally had an issue with people bullying over social media?
A: No, but I know people that have had to deal with online bullies.
Q: That’s terrible! Well thank you for your time today Shelby! I really appreciate it!
Shelby’s answers were pretty short and to the point, maybe a testament to her age, Sam was able to dig a little deeper into his social media habits.
Here is my interview with Sam:
Q: Hi Sam! Thanks for letting me interview you today. So first off, what social media sites do you use?
A: I use Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, and Reddit.
Q: What do you use each of those for?
A: I use Instagram to keep up with my friends and see what everybody is doing, especially friends I don’t see often. I use snapchat for more of a quick fix type of social media, its unfiltered because parents don’t snapchat so it’s more fun than other social medias. I love snapchat because you can feel free to send anything because the photos and messages delete. I use Twitter rarely, but when I do its mostly for Twitter drama. Reddit is a fun website where people post cool videos and photos, but I also browse it for news and other current events.
Q: Which social media site is your favorite and why?
A: Instagram is my favorite because its refined and easy to use, but also classy. People post their best moments which is a lot of fun to see and compare to.
Q: How long have you had social media?
A: I’ve had social media since the sixth grade. I started with Facebook, but deleted it a year later because I didn’t like it. After that I got Instagram, Twitter and snapchat as soon as they released it and have had them ever since.
Q: How has your social media behavior changed over the years?
A: Over the years my social media behavior has changed drastically. I used to post funny pictures id find on the internet but as the years went on, I deleted all of those off my Instagram and started new with pictures that were actually worth looking at. I try to be very responsible now over social media by not posting anything that would hurt me in the future.
Q: Awesome! Thank you for your time today Sam!
It is easy to see the differences in social media use between these two age groups within the teenage demographic. Sam is more refined in his social media use and knows the importance of not posting things that future employers can see that could hurt him in the future. I also found it really interesting that Shelby mentioned cyber bullying, and Sam did not. I think cyber bullying has become a big issue in recent years and I think it can affect the younger generation more than we think. Following this it is important to look at how social media behavior is different between the younger generation of teens and the older ones, so often they get put together, even though they act very differently online. This PDF from the PEW Research Center does a good job of deciphering how teens and young adults differ on social media, file:///C:/Users/AlexVasser/Downloads/PIP_Social_Media_and_Young_Adults_Report.pdf.
There is also discussion on how girls and boys use social media differently within the teenage demographic, this article from Fortune goes over some basic ways boys and girls differ in their social media use, http://fortune.com/2015/08/06/teens-social-media/, but I think there is room for more research on this, especially on how teenage girls and boys differ within privacy online.
This article by Paul Malcore discusses the “diet” of teenagers online, http://www.rawhide.org/blog/infographics/teens-digital-diet/?gclid=CjwKEAjw-r27BRCzsNyzrMrM-j0SJACp2TiBJeAQQHicj_yRd9k-gzra697dyyavhawUaJ5zLB8_WxoCFibw_wcB. There isn’t a lot of research out there on how the different ages within the teenage group act differently online, and I think it would be really interesting to see how differently they act. It could be really great research for advertising on social media and for how social media sites improve depending on who uses them.
