Generation Z’s internet use is increasing, but the rate at which teens are using Facebook is rapidly decreasing. A Pew Research Center survey on teens, technology and social media found that only 32% of teens aged 13 to 17 use Facebook at all, but in a previous 2014-2015 survey, that figure was 71%, marking platforms like Instagram and Snapchat.
Jules Terpak, a Gen Z content creator involved in digital culture, told TechCrunch that teens simply don’t find value in Facebook anymore.
“There are now more than five highly positioned social media platforms to endlessly scroll through, and it is not sustainable for our minds to pigeonhole or prioritize our relationship with all of them,” Terpak said via email. “For the sake of time and common sense, people should eliminate platforms that are starting to lack incentive for value-add.”
Terpak thinks Facebook, which teens often associate with their parents, has little to offer Gen Z.
“The culture cultivated by the average Facebook user is very separate from what attracts Gen Z to a platform these days, instead it exudes the energy of a spam email,” she said.
Even in 2013, when 77% of online teens used Facebook, young users still felt negative about the platform.
“While Facebook is still deeply integrated into teens’ everyday lives, it is sometimes seen as a utility and an obligation rather than an exciting new platform that teens can claim as their own,” according to Pew’s 2013 report. In that nine-year-old study, Pew found that teens expressed more enthusiasm for other platforms, even if they didn’t use them as much as Facebook. That trend has remained constant — as new generations of teens join social media, they’ve almost completely abandoned Facebook.
Pew’s new findings also match Facebook’s own internal reporting, according to documents leaked by whistleblower Frances Haugen. A Facebook researcher found in early 2021 that the number of teenage Facebook app users had fallen 13% since 2019 and predicted that figure would continue to fall by 45% over the next two years. Overall, Facebook usage has stalled somewhat, but this drop in a key demographic is bad news for Facebook’s advertising business, which accounts for the bulk of its revenue.
“Most young adults see Facebook as a place for people in their 40s and 50s,” according to the 2021 internal Facebook document obtained by The Verge. “Young adults perceive content as boring, misleading and negative.”
Instagram is not far behind TikTok
Even when teens are tired of Facebook, they haven’t given up on Instagram, another Meta platform. Sixty-two percent of teens use Instagram, up from 52% in the 2014-2015 survey. But TikTok, which wasn’t even released at the time of the latest survey, is now used by 67% of American teens. Ninety-five percent of teens say they use YouTube, making it seem like the dominant social platform, but many users only use the platform to watch videos, rather than as a place to connect with others online. For example, a teenager using YouTube to listen to music would be included in that 95%.
Image Credits: Pew Research Center (Opens in a new window)
But given that TikTok is inches above Instagram and Snapchat — used by 62% and 59% of American teens, respectively — it makes sense why these older platforms are so desperate to emulate their newer competitor.
Pew also asked the 1,316 teens surveyed how often they use these apps. But TikTok still earned a bigger share of teens’ attention than any platform other than YouTube, which 19% of teens say they use “almost constantly.” TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat earned this “near constant attention” from 16%, 10% and 15% of teens, respectively. Only 2% said this about Facebook.
Image Credits: Pew Research Center (Opens in a new window)
These “near constant” confessions may seem alarming, but teens are aware that using social media doesn’t always provide the social connection they hope for. Thirty-six percent of teens think they spend too much time on social media. Conversely, only 8% of teens said they feel they don’t use social media enough.
If you think Gen Z is full of phone-addicted zombies, you might be wrong. Forty-five percent of teens said they would have no qualms about giving up social media. More power for them.
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