As recently as last fall it seemed as though Facebook was becoming a social network for parents and grandparents, while teenagers were exiting en masse for hotter, newer networks like Instagram and Snapchat.
Not so anymore, says a new survey.
Forrester Research polled 4,517 teenagers between the ages of 12 and 17 about their Facebook habits, and the results, as published in the Wall Street Journal from a report titled "Why the Sky Isn't Falling on the World's Favorite Social Network," are rather surprising. Almost half of those polled said they're using Facebook more than they were a year ago. Additionally, "vastly" more teens are signing up for Facebook than every other social network save one: YouTube. The report states 28 percent of teens surveyed claimed to use Facebook every day , a higher percentage of constant use than any other social network.
"Since Facebook's CFO admitted in 2013 that young teens were visiting the site slightly less frequently, most marketers have accepted as fact that teens are fleeing the site. But that's simply not true," said Nate Elliott, a researcher at Forrester who co-authored the survey with Gina Fleming.
Elliott is often one of the loudest critics of Facebook's advertising model, but his new report offers nothing but praise. "More than three-quarters of online youth use Facebook -- twice as many as use Pinterest or Tumblr or Snapchat, and more than use Instagram and WhatsApp combined."
The research firm also predicted younger teenagers will sign up as they get their first smartphones. It's said that Facebook's apps are among the most commonly used of all mobile apps. "As today's 12- and 13-year-olds grow into 16- and 17-year-olds, it's likely their Facebook adoption will increase further," Elliott added.
The funny thing is, teens may be using Facebook not because they like it or they want to. They might be using it simply because they have no choice. Practicality comes into play when a service is as widely used as Facebook. At the end of the day, Facebook's popularity among teens could come down to peer pressure.
Coming in second in the daily usage poll was Instagram, followed by Snapchat, Twitter, Vine, and WhatsApp. Remember that Instagram is owned by Facebook, and WhatsApp will soon be part of Facebook's portfolio as well. Pundits have speculated that Facebook's acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp were part of a strategy to win back younger users, and if that's the case, it seems to have worked.
Facebook now commands half of the six most popular social networks among teens.
