As Facebook Ages, Gen Y Turns to Twitter
Facebook is getting old. No, people aren't getting tired of it, it's actually getting old, as in its population is aging. In May of 2008, the median age for Facebook was 26. Today, it's 33, a good seven years older. That's an interesting turn of events for a site once built for the exclusive use of college students. So where are today's college students hanging out now? Well, to some extent, they're still on Facebook, despite having to share the space with moms, dads, grandparents, and bosses. Surprisingly though, they're also headed to another network you may have heard of: Twitter.
As it turns out, Gen Y likes Twitter...Well, maybe not, but they are using it
Over the course of the year, there have been countless reports - some more substantial than others - but all with the same message: Generation Y is just not interested in Twitter. The reports generally cited members of this demographic as saying Twitter was "pointless" and "narcissistic."
Apparently, that's beginning to change. Well, maybe not their perception of Twitter, but certainly their use of it. Today, Twitter is now the second-youngest of the top four social networking sites. Its median age is 31. MySpace's is 26, LinkedIn is 39, and, as noted above, Facebook is 33.
When looking at specific younger demographic segments, and not just Gen Y, you can see strong Twitter uptake over the past year. For example, 37% of those 18-24 now use Twitter when only 19% did back in December 2008. And in the slightly older 25-34 bracket, a portion of which could still be considered Gen Y, 31% are now using the service compared to only 20% in December of last year. Combined, these two groups account for more than half of Twitter's network.
Why is Gen Y Now Flocking to Twitter?
So what gives? Why has Gen Y seemingly changed their minds about the social microblogging network that only months ago they avoided? A recent AP article offered up some ideas including the influx of celebrity tweeters, pressure from teachers or bosses, and it even hinted that Gen Y'ers entering the workplace have found value in the network for business-related purposes. That same sentiment was shared by Meredith Sires of Gen Y trend-watching site, YPulse. She theorizes that the rapid growth in the 18-24 demographic has to do more with the recent college graduates segment of that group finding ways to build entirely new online contact lists and create new identities more closely tied to information-sharing.
However, there have not been any in-depth studies that detail all the various reasons that Gen Y has chosen to adopt the microblogging network. To date, everything cited consists of just theories and speculations based on anecdotal evidence. But while all the ideas have merit, the theory that rings truest to our ears is the one put forth by Craig Watkins, a University of Texas professor and author of the book "The Young and the Digital." He says that what we're seeing is "...a kind of closing of that generational gap as it relates to technology." In other words, young and old alike are joining the same networks and socializing in the same spaces.
At this point, we would have to agree. After all, Gen Y (or Gen Z for that matter), hasn't all of a sudden flocked to some new social networking site where the majority of the online user base mostly consists of their peers. Although some niche sites like FML, Failblog, TextsFromLastNight, and Sporcle have apparently attracted this young crowd, their numbers are dwarfed by those of Facebook, Twitter, and the like. It seems as if Gen Y is simply content to join the older adults on the top social networks of today and not strike out on their own...and vice versa. The older social networking users, in turn, never really set up shop on networks designed just for them like the (now "hibernating") Boomj, a social network for baby boomers, or the online old folks home eons.com. They, too, have gravitated towards Facebook and Twitter.
Will this ever change? Will there ever be another network dominated by the digital youth? Of course no one can know for sure, but odds are that unless it's a closed-off network where entry is barred to those over a certain age, any new social network will have trouble keeping the grown-ups out these days. And even if some such network ever sprang into existence, it may struggle to attract the Gen Y members it desires - especially since they're so content to socialize on the sites they already use. And now that they've added Twitter to that list, the challenge to draw them away to yet another social networking site may prove even more difficult than before.
Note: statistics in this article are from Pew Internet's Recent Report on Twitter for Fall 2009
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I think part of the problem is that Facebook is desperately trying to be something it's not. Twitter is twitter. Yet Facebook wants a piece of that too... so it starts trying to get clever and the technology just doesn't seem to facilitate. I never understood what was wrong with it in the first place, then they start adding lots of extra features which makes it more and more complex and confusing.
I can see more people not just taking up sites like Twitter - but also migrating away from Facebook because it's just not as user friendly any more.
I trust Quantcast more than Pew and it continues to show an alarmingly small percentage of younger users for Twitter vs. Facebook.
I have to agree with Rob Hallums above. Facebook is going out of it's way not to be the facebook that we signed up for when it was fresh and new and trying to adopt the traits of what is now fresh and new. As this article says though, it's been around for a while and it's NOT fresh and new, but over time instead of building up the trust of it's user base, which a network wielding this sort of control of our information as facebook does, it's gone and repeatedly undermined this trust.
The younger, hipper kids these days are going to use the fresher products and be more willing to change, but the increasingly older demographic of facebook will be crying out for things to stay stable.
Unfortunately, facebook now is no longer the place that it was, a closed place amongst old friends where you could reminisce without worrying about potentially damaging public leaks as it perhaps may have once been when it was less well known. (alright it was never THAT secure)
Instead of being a safe haven for reliving old times, facebook have decided to make it a place where people show off publicly, which many people don't want to do, and by opening up the information publicly, they have betrayed many of the users who signed up with privacy in mind.
As a result, facebook has outgrown it's originally intended purpose and should not be in the least bit surprised that people are moving away.
The solution, in my opinion is not to move to more publicly broadcatable status and pictures and try to emulate Twitter (badly) but to go the opposite way and be a REAL alternative, where you can peacefully chat amongst old friends and family.
Not everyone WANTS to broadcast their lives to the world facebook!
Personally, myself I don't use facebook's wall any more. I prefer to keep my personal life to myself and only use my REAL wall to display REAL post. Check it out on www.myrealwall.com
Maybe I'm missing something, but the article doesn't actually give statistics that support the claim that young people are "turning to Twitter" at the expense of Facebook, which is what is implied. The fact that more older people are using Facebook accounts for the increase in median age, not that less younger people are.
Likewise, it seems that the increase users of Twitter among this group is more of a product of the fact that Twitter is itself very young and still catching on. It's only three years old, and its major overall growth is much more recent than that.
Seems to me like another example of a reporter looking for an interesting trend, rather than it being a solid trend that should be reported on.
I bet Twitter is a great way to follow celebrities for younger audience. What concerns me is that some might be more targeted by spammers etc.
This is just like that post you did where young people use Gmail and old people use AOL. It's kind of like saying something like: studies suggest people over 50 have old black and white birth certificates where younger people have pretty stamped blue ones.
Also, the graph really doesn't indicate that younger people prefer to use Twitter over facebook. It simply indicates that they are more likely to use it than older people.
A better observation to make from this graph is that the percentage of Twitter users in all age brackets has nearly doubled since last year.
Final note here: Look at the graph again...what age bracket changed the most percentage wise. 55-64.
Come on RWW
I would argue that the post isn't meant to be just an analysis of the one graph, but all the data mentioned including median age changes and the conflicting reports from only months ago that said Gen Y did not use Twitter. Well, at least that was the overall point I was attempting to make...
Posted by: Sarah Perez
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November 5, 2009 9:45 AM
Hey Sarah,
Pew didn't do its best work on this one, as the survey says more likely "to use Twitter or another status update service." In other words, it conflated Twitter with Facebook and any other social service that offers status updates, making the results far less clear than they could have been.
Also, here's the latest data we've seen on Facebook's growth in the US, covering October. "Males 18-25 led Facebook’s demographic categories this month, adding nearly 1 million monthly active users to over 12 million. Females 18-25 also increased in number by nearly 1 million last month. In addition, women 35-44 showed strong growth, while increases in males 35-44 were lower."
However, I've also seen other reports suggesting that younger people are also using Twitter more. I think a lot of people use both :)
-E
Facebook just "looks" so old, give the user more tools to tweak and enrich the interface, give us tools to kick out half of the overload.
It would be interesting to know what percentage of Twitter growth in the Gen Y demographic is coming from a drift away from MySpace.
Hey Ryan,
I wrote a post today about why Gen Y is choosing Twitter over Facebook that goes a little deeper into the reasoning behind it, and why marketers are better off using Twitter than Facebook to reach Gen Y.
It has to do a lot more with Gen Y characteristics as a generation, though the data Sarah included above is supportive of the trend.
Click on my name above to see the article - it will make a lot more sense.
SimplyItaly – Google Maps Meets Twitter Lists http://bit.ly/SimplyItaly
Twitter is a huge spam fest as far as I'm concerned.
I think this is true, but im starting to see more and more of an older population on twitter.
The contents of the Pew report are misrepresented in this article. The article's author says "37% of those 18-24 now use Twitter", but that's not at all what the Pew report concludes. The report indicates that 37% of 18-24 year old internet users use Twitter or ANOTHER UPDATE SERVICE (e.g. Facebook). As was mentioned in a previous comment, the report does little to separate Twitter use from the use all status update services.
You know where people are turning? UGC humor blogs :) Like www.randomcreepyguy.com - check it
I'm just please that I fall under the 'Young People Flock to Twitter' headline on the graph! (just!!).
Pew didn't do its best work on this one, as the survey says more likely "to use Twitter or another status update service." In other words, it conflated Twitter with Facebook and any other social service that offers status updates, making the results far less clear than they could have been.
That's my issue with the way this has been interpreted. The research results do not say Gen Y is turning to Twitter. It's quite likely these results show that they continue to use Facebook (or even MySpace) to post status updates.
Thanks for sharing this one, this just proves that Facebook and Twitter are indeed part of our everyday lives. It caters all generation and age brackets as well that's why this two are the best marketing tool companies are using to reach to their target market.
I am a Facebook and Twitter addict, self confessed but changes happening on Facebook lately makes me think twice about maintaining it.
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