Gen Z internet use is on the rise, but the rate at which teens use Facebook is rapidly declining. A Pew Research Center study on teens, technology and social media found that only 32% of teens aged 13-17 use Facebook at all, but in a previous survey from 2014-2015, that figure was 71%, beating out platforms like Instagram and Snapchat.
Yes, the alternatives are far more exciting to teens. Back in its day, MySpace was the absolute dominant social media platform, but newer users flocked to Facebook, and MySpace became a vacuum. It looks like the wheel is going to keep turning, and this is a good thing, as we need healthy competition between social platforms, without lock-in to a single one of them.
It would be good though, to have interoperability coming back, like we had with XMPP providing the glue to communicate between different platforms. If e-mail (and mobile text messaging) can have a common standard that works across different e-mail services, why should our social platforms be any different? That would allow you (or your friends) to change social platform but stay in contact with one another = freedom to choose.
See https://techcrunch.com/2022/08/11/teens-abandoned-facebook-pew-study/
#technology #socialnetworks #deletefacebook #teens