8 ms·

How Teens Really Use Apps

69 points by weitingliu 12y ago

techaddict009 12y ago
No Whatsapp in survey! Strange.
- skizm 12y ago
  No one really uses Whatsapp in America.
- mhandley 12y ago
  Agreed - definitely the main app for kids at my son's school in London. They do use instagram a lot too though.
- soneca 12y ago
  It is not very used in US. This is the danger of relying too much on US tech press and bloggers, when there are more and more trends and use cases common all over the world, except US. A very interesting thread is Whatsapp acquisition news. Lot of US HNers were shocked with its value; but a lot of people from a lot of other places just knew whatsapp as THE ONLY messaging tool that matters in their respectives countries (and that in a lot of very different countries). Edit, said thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7266618 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7266618
  - techaddict009 12y ago
    Ah! Whatsapp kind of main source of communication in India atleast this days.
    - soneca 12y ago
      In Brazil too. Being used to get in touch with strangers too now, just like your cellphone number. Business contacts, flirts, everything. One of the biggest mobile service provider here (TIM) is betting big, advertising a mobile plan that gives you unlimited internet usage through Whatsapp. Everything else has a usage quota, internet through Whatsapp is unlimited (and I wouldn't be surprise if Whatsapp is not paying a penny for this kind of advertising)
      - dethstar 12y ago
        in Mexico the two biggest carriers offer too plans with unlimited Whatsapp, but also include twitter and facebook.
      - techaddict009 12y ago
        Yeah even in India many operators provide such packages for whatsapp and facebook. But I think it kinds of breaks net neutrality!
- jasonlotito 12y ago
  Not Whatsapp in the report. Hard to come to any conclusion based on the information provided considering we don't know how they came up with that information. For example, they list the top 8 apps... but is that top 8 based on mentions, rankings, or something else?
sixothree 12y ago
I really don't understand why teens would need facebook, and why people are always surprised they don't use it more. They see most of their friends on a daily basis. They have different communication needs. Maybe once they get to college I would expect that to change.
- josefresco 12y ago
  Relavent quote from article: "While talking to several members of the teenage\young adult age bracket, it became clear that the above results did not mean teenagers did not use Facebook. Facebook, even if not their “primary” social network, continues to play a big role. It is, however, more of a utilitarian role than before." So Facebook has become akin to your public "phone book" listing for younger users. I don't think it's a matter of how often they "see" their friends, as Snapchat, Instagram and other app usage is very high so clearly - they want to connect in this manor - just not on Facebook.
  - Matachines 12y ago
    >So Facebook has become akin to your public "phone book" listing for younger users. This makes sense to me. I am 21 and "use Facebook" every day (i.e. open the Messenger app). Almost everyone I know is on there and I am on several group chats with both online and real friends. It's very useful. Haven't logged in the actual Facebook site in a while, though.
- untog 12y ago
  Facebook is practically a utility these days. It's not just your friends on it, it's your family, distant relatives, etc. That makes it a lot less cool, but it also means its position is safe for now.
- xasos 12y ago
  Teen here. I don't see 95% of my friends on a daily basis (even good friends). Facebook is incredibly useful for managing events, messaging others (my main use), groups (school and interest groups), and keeping up with what's going on in my friends lives (Snapchat and Instagram don't really solve this).
danso 12y ago
I'm old so I've missed the Snapchat wave...but I've slowly been getting into Instagram, after having initially dismissed it since I used to spend enough time on Flickr. Most of the students I know use Instagram regularly, as do many of my friends my age, even the ones who were once big FB users and have since dropped out. I like Instagram's "feel", and I imagine Snapchat's is similar. Its main point of sharing is tied to a low-friction hardware feature (using the mobile camera, then picking a filter) and so just posting something, anything, is easy. Unlike a banal Tweet, a banal Instagram photo just sits there to be looked at, and so you don't have to worry too much about being judged harshly (with Twitter, most novices fear that the format constrains their "deep" thoughts to superficialities...which is partially true)...And even if photos are worth a thousand words, their domain is relatively constrained. It's hard to stumble onto political/divisive content the way you can on Facebook or Twitter, and there's less room for content-sharers to bloviate about their lives (since some of them are confident in their visual skill to think that their photo alone says it all). You can just lazily browse the stream, contribute something if you feel like it, then get back to life. So for an older generation that grew up in the age when blogging was hot...there's a kind of appeal in having online social networks being so loose and "shallow"...then you can get back to real life and not be so obsessed over how all of your high school friends are now married with two beautiful babies and living in a perfect house according to their Facebook feed. The effect of this ephemeralness is probably different to the younger crowd, though, who may have less incentive/discipline to peel away from their phones.
ams6110 12y ago
tl;dr: Teens follow fads.
patejam 12y ago
I think it's important to remember that Instagram is a part of Facebook. That bumps their market share up quite a bit.
- guava 12y ago
  WhatsApp is also owned by Facebook and this will further bump up their market share.
- AndrewKemendo 12y ago
  Yes and considering they are trying to get snapchat too, it's pretty clear they knew early on the right strategy to own the market. I wonder, with a snapchat merger, if they would run into monopoly issues with the FTC.
auganov 12y ago
Were people actually asked "Facebook" instead of "Facebook or Messenger"?
KFW504 12y ago
They may not use it in the same way, but the fact that they are using them to make life decisions is pretty huge: http://time.com/3762067/college-acceptance-instagram-high-school/ http://time.com/3762067/college-acceptance-instagram-high-sc...
throwaway_97 12y ago
How Teens in USA Really Use Apps
Grue3 12y ago
Flawed methodology. If you use Instagram 21% of the time, Facebook 20% of the time, and other apps less than that, the study puts you firmly into Instagram bucket despite you using Facebook with the similar frequency. There is no accounting for people who use more than one app, which is what most people do.
UUMMUU 12y ago
The Tumblr part where the kids are saying "I'm a huge nerd" or "I'm a big geek" made me unnecessarily angry. Why did being a nerd have to become a trendy thing? I remember when my love of C++ and Calculus wasn't something to brag about. I guess I'm just old.
- joezydeco 12y ago
  I don't think it's a trendy thing, I think the etymology of the word "nerd" has evolved to mean that you have a deep and detailed understanding of a particular subject. Perhaps Tumblr, in the eyes of teens, has a steeper learning curve than spewing out pictures with Instagram/Snapchat and being adept with the platform indicates you have better technical capabilities. Either way, I don't think it's a bad thing that the word "nerd" has changed in this manner.
  - slayed0 12y ago
    Are you silently protesting the spelling of tumblr or was that just a typo?
    - joezydeco 12y ago
      Just a typo. I fixed it.
  - Goronmon 12y ago
    I think the etymology of the word "nerd" has evolved to mean that you have a deep and detailed understanding of a particular subject. I more see it used as a way to signal that you are interested in a subject relatively more than whatever main group you identify with. So someone would call themselves a "book nerd" even if they only read a couple books a year, because most of their friends don't read at all.
  - dragonwriter 12y ago
    > I think the etymology of the word "nerd" has evolved to mean that [...] I don't think the definition of the word "etymology" has evolved to mean "definition" (or "current usage").
zxcvvcxz 12y ago
It's mind-blowing how much money and value is creating from teenagers wasting time.
- wongarsu 12y ago
  What do you consider "wasting time"? All the apps listed can be used in productive ways: Facebook and Snapchat can be used for communication with peers, not unlike talking in person but with less scheduling overhead; Twitter can be used as a quick communication network both for news and for efficient contact with a wider circle of acquaintances; Tumblr and Reddit can be used both as news sites, for acquiring advice from a wide range of people and for broadening your understanding of the world. Of course all those services can be misused as well and can become wastes of time or even be detrimental (for example Tumblr and Reddit are famous for their possibility of creating very powerful echo chambers). But for all I know those teenagers could be using their time much better than I did at their age.
ryanSrich 12y ago
As a 25 yeah old I feel like I've completely missed this second wave of social media. - Facebook is all old people that post horribly made memes and highly ignorant content. - Tumblr is...what is tumblr again? - No one I know uses Snapchat...plus what would I even send to other people "hey, bro! check out this cool bowl of cereal I'm eating". - I've been with my significant other for 6 years so tinder, etc. is something I've never had to use. - I do use Twitter. - I also use instagram but only as an artistic outlet, not just random photos of daily life. I have a clear strategy for how I use my instagram account. - I browse reddit but most of the time the quality of the content is extremely low. - I use more industry specific social media like Github and Dribbble but are those even considered social media? Is HN social media?
- bkurtz13 12y ago
  I'm hitting 30 this year and I can definitely relate to this. I feel like I'm in social network limbo, and nothing really caters to me.
- jmckib 12y ago
  Just to add my own data point, I'm 26 years old: - Facebook is alive and well, even among the < 20 crowd I know. I love using it. - Several of my friends use Tumblr, but I don't get it. It looks like a mess to me; I have trouble spotting the content I'm supposed to look at. - A lot of my friends were on snapchat when it first became popular, and the content they sent me was sometimes hilarious, but mostly boring. Most people I know have lost interest. - I've never been able to get into Twitter. - I LOVE reddit. I'm one of those weird people that finds the default front page hilarious (granted, it does get old after a while), but the more time I spend on it, the more I appreciate how it allows me to connect to people I never could have met in real life. For example, I was curious what police officers thought about a recent shooting in my hometown, so I posted to a law enforcement subreddit and got perspectives from all over the world, including from officers in New Zealand where they don't regularly carry firearms. Another time I was discussing SSL on the redditdev sub, and a reddit engineer jumped in and explained why reddit doesn't force https (infrastructure capacity reasons).
  - 12y ago
kawliga 12y ago
Images like that concert photo really are unnerving. Instead of actually just having fun, people have become more concerned with letting everyone know how much "fun" they're having. It's so strange to me. "See how cool I am? Aren't I special?!?!"
- grkvlt 12y ago
  Or, people are actually having fun, and want to share and remember the experience. The two are not mutually exclusive, and most people enjoy looking back on a video or picture they took at a (possibly shared) event or experience, and can recreate or re-experience it that way. I think your cynical 'Aren't I special' motivation is going to be way off the mark for most of those people at the concert. How can you be special in a crowd of tens of thousands doing exactly the same thing?
  - kawliga 12y ago
    No one wants to ACTUALLY remember the experience / recreate it. That's purely a justification of the vanity. And cynical? I don't think so and I'll explain why. It goes way beyond events like this concert. It's the notion of publishing every aspect of your life just so others will notice it. I once saw on facebook where a girl had posted an image of her family all huddled together, grievously hugging: "Just found out that my grandma has cancer." Who decides that's the time to step back and snap a photo for social media? And why, to get "likes"? Maybe add a filter somewhere in between. My brother saw the same thing as that concert image, but at a funeral. It's ALL to get noticement and it weirds me out.
  - nosuchthing 12y ago
    There's definitely a certain breed of people who get off more on showing other people that they're AT a concert/event rather then participating in the experience of the event. It's evident that some people express little interest in the music being played, but rather enjoy taking selfies with the artists in the background.
    - grkvlt 12y ago
coldcode 12y ago
Teens are a separate subspecies of human. Eventually they metamorphose into adults. Trying to write apps to appeal to both is an exercise in frustration.
Lawtonfogle 12y ago
No Kik? Of the few really young mobile phone users I know who use social media, that and instagram are their go to apps.
tsunamifury 12y ago
I'm going to ask: Why do we care what teens use? - They don't make significant purchase decisions - Ad-views are mostly wasted on them - The interactions and contexts they like at their age, they likely grow out of before you can monetize the longterm relationships Why are we chasing after the teenage fools gold. Owning a communications channel that is used by adults making significant purchasing decisions on a regular basis while doing work via you channel seems to be infinitely more valuable.
- bhayden 12y ago
  I have a website for a video game that probably appeals to a lot of age groups, but the content is overwhelmingly generated by teenagers. I think it's safe to safe that a TON of the content on reddit, especially default subs, meme subs, and stuff like /r/atheism, is largely also made by teenagers. Even though they aren't useful viewers for ads or spending any money, it's important to understand the people that generate a large chunk of your site's content.
  - tsunamifury 12y ago
    So teens are a vangaurd that is needed to attract 20's and 30's who will actually spend money? I don't think that adds up. 20's and 30's will use things like Tinder, Craiglist, eBay, etc that meet their needs and... generate useful outputs for both parties.
- dragonwriter 12y ago
  Teens may not have much in the way of independent resources, but they've always been an important market.

69 points by weitingliu 12y ago

techaddict009 12y ago

No Whatsapp in survey! Strange.

skizm 12y ago
No one really uses Whatsapp in America.
mhandley 12y ago
Agreed - definitely the main app for kids at my son's school in London. They do use instagram a lot too though.
soneca 12y ago
It is not very used in US. This is the danger of relying too much on US tech press and bloggers, when there are more and more trends and use cases common all over the world, except US. A very interesting thread is Whatsapp acquisition news. Lot of US HNers were shocked with its value; but a lot of people from a lot of other places just knew whatsapp as THE ONLY messaging tool that matters in their respectives countries (and that in a lot of very different countries). Edit, said thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7266618 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7266618
- techaddict009 12y ago
  Ah! Whatsapp kind of main source of communication in India atleast this days.
  - soneca 12y ago
    In Brazil too. Being used to get in touch with strangers too now, just like your cellphone number. Business contacts, flirts, everything. One of the biggest mobile service provider here (TIM) is betting big, advertising a mobile plan that gives you unlimited internet usage through Whatsapp. Everything else has a usage quota, internet through Whatsapp is unlimited (and I wouldn't be surprise if Whatsapp is not paying a penny for this kind of advertising)
    - dethstar 12y ago
      in Mexico the two biggest carriers offer too plans with unlimited Whatsapp, but also include twitter and facebook.
    - techaddict009 12y ago
      Yeah even in India many operators provide such packages for whatsapp and facebook. But I think it kinds of breaks net neutrality!
jasonlotito 12y ago
Not Whatsapp in the report. Hard to come to any conclusion based on the information provided considering we don't know how they came up with that information. For example, they list the top 8 apps... but is that top 8 based on mentions, rankings, or something else?

sixothree 12y ago

I really don't understand why teens would need facebook, and why people are always surprised they don't use it more. They see most of their friends on a daily basis. They have different communication needs. Maybe once they get to college I would expect that to change.

josefresco 12y ago
Relavent quote from article: "While talking to several members of the teenage\young adult age bracket, it became clear that the above results did not mean teenagers did not use Facebook. Facebook, even if not their “primary” social network, continues to play a big role. It is, however, more of a utilitarian role than before." So Facebook has become akin to your public "phone book" listing for younger users. I don't think it's a matter of how often they "see" their friends, as Snapchat, Instagram and other app usage is very high so clearly - they want to connect in this manor - just not on Facebook.
- Matachines 12y ago
  >So Facebook has become akin to your public "phone book" listing for younger users. This makes sense to me. I am 21 and "use Facebook" every day (i.e. open the Messenger app). Almost everyone I know is on there and I am on several group chats with both online and real friends. It's very useful. Haven't logged in the actual Facebook site in a while, though.
untog 12y ago
Facebook is practically a utility these days. It's not just your friends on it, it's your family, distant relatives, etc. That makes it a lot less cool, but it also means its position is safe for now.
xasos 12y ago
Teen here. I don't see 95% of my friends on a daily basis (even good friends). Facebook is incredibly useful for managing events, messaging others (my main use), groups (school and interest groups), and keeping up with what's going on in my friends lives (Snapchat and Instagram don't really solve this).

danso 12y ago

I'm old so I've missed the Snapchat wave...but I've slowly been getting into Instagram, after having initially dismissed it since I used to spend enough time on Flickr. Most of the students I know use Instagram regularly, as do many of my friends my age, even the ones who were once big FB users and have since dropped out. I like Instagram's "feel", and I imagine Snapchat's is similar. Its main point of sharing is tied to a low-friction hardware feature (using the mobile camera, then picking a filter) and so just posting something, anything, is easy. Unlike a banal Tweet, a banal Instagram photo just sits there to be looked at, and so you don't have to worry too much about being judged harshly (with Twitter, most novices fear that the format constrains their "deep" thoughts to superficialities...which is partially true)...And even if photos are worth a thousand words, their domain is relatively constrained. It's hard to stumble onto political/divisive content the way you can on Facebook or Twitter, and there's less room for content-sharers to bloviate about their lives (since some of them are confident in their visual skill to think that their photo alone says it all). You can just lazily browse the stream, contribute something if you feel like it, then get back to life. So for an older generation that grew up in the age when blogging was hot...there's a kind of appeal in having online social networks being so loose and "shallow"...then you can get back to real life and not be so obsessed over how all of your high school friends are now married with two beautiful babies and living in a perfect house according to their Facebook feed. The effect of this ephemeralness is probably different to the younger crowd, though, who may have less incentive/discipline to peel away from their phones.

ams6110 12y ago

tl;dr: Teens follow fads.

patejam 12y ago

I think it's important to remember that Instagram is a part of Facebook. That bumps their market share up quite a bit.

guava 12y ago
WhatsApp is also owned by Facebook and this will further bump up their market share.
AndrewKemendo 12y ago
Yes and considering they are trying to get snapchat too, it's pretty clear they knew early on the right strategy to own the market. I wonder, with a snapchat merger, if they would run into monopoly issues with the FTC.

auganov 12y ago

Were people actually asked "Facebook" instead of "Facebook or Messenger"?

KFW504 12y ago

They may not use it in the same way, but the fact that they are using them to make life decisions is pretty huge: http://time.com/3762067/college-acceptance-instagram-high-school/ http://time.com/3762067/college-acceptance-instagram-high-sc...

throwaway_97 12y ago

How Teens in USA Really Use Apps

Grue3 12y ago

Flawed methodology. If you use Instagram 21% of the time, Facebook 20% of the time, and other apps less than that, the study puts you firmly into Instagram bucket despite you using Facebook with the similar frequency. There is no accounting for people who use more than one app, which is what most people do.

UUMMUU 12y ago

The Tumblr part where the kids are saying "I'm a huge nerd" or "I'm a big geek" made me unnecessarily angry. Why did being a nerd have to become a trendy thing? I remember when my love of C++ and Calculus wasn't something to brag about. I guess I'm just old.

joezydeco 12y ago
I don't think it's a trendy thing, I think the etymology of the word "nerd" has evolved to mean that you have a deep and detailed understanding of a particular subject. Perhaps Tumblr, in the eyes of teens, has a steeper learning curve than spewing out pictures with Instagram/Snapchat and being adept with the platform indicates you have better technical capabilities. Either way, I don't think it's a bad thing that the word "nerd" has changed in this manner.
- slayed0 12y ago
  Are you silently protesting the spelling of tumblr or was that just a typo?
  - joezydeco 12y ago
    Just a typo. I fixed it.
- Goronmon 12y ago
  I think the etymology of the word "nerd" has evolved to mean that you have a deep and detailed understanding of a particular subject. I more see it used as a way to signal that you are interested in a subject relatively more than whatever main group you identify with. So someone would call themselves a "book nerd" even if they only read a couple books a year, because most of their friends don't read at all.
- dragonwriter 12y ago
  > I think the etymology of the word "nerd" has evolved to mean that [...] I don't think the definition of the word "etymology" has evolved to mean "definition" (or "current usage").

zxcvvcxz 12y ago

It's mind-blowing how much money and value is creating from teenagers wasting time.

wongarsu 12y ago
What do you consider "wasting time"? All the apps listed can be used in productive ways: Facebook and Snapchat can be used for communication with peers, not unlike talking in person but with less scheduling overhead; Twitter can be used as a quick communication network both for news and for efficient contact with a wider circle of acquaintances; Tumblr and Reddit can be used both as news sites, for acquiring advice from a wide range of people and for broadening your understanding of the world. Of course all those services can be misused as well and can become wastes of time or even be detrimental (for example Tumblr and Reddit are famous for their possibility of creating very powerful echo chambers). But for all I know those teenagers could be using their time much better than I did at their age.

ryanSrich 12y ago

As a 25 yeah old I feel like I've completely missed this second wave of social media. - Facebook is all old people that post horribly made memes and highly ignorant content. - Tumblr is...what is tumblr again? - No one I know uses Snapchat...plus what would I even send to other people "hey, bro! check out this cool bowl of cereal I'm eating". - I've been with my significant other for 6 years so tinder, etc. is something I've never had to use. - I do use Twitter. - I also use instagram but only as an artistic outlet, not just random photos of daily life. I have a clear strategy for how I use my instagram account. - I browse reddit but most of the time the quality of the content is extremely low. - I use more industry specific social media like Github and Dribbble but are those even considered social media? Is HN social media?

bkurtz13 12y ago
I'm hitting 30 this year and I can definitely relate to this. I feel like I'm in social network limbo, and nothing really caters to me.
jmckib 12y ago
Just to add my own data point, I'm 26 years old: - Facebook is alive and well, even among the < 20 crowd I know. I love using it. - Several of my friends use Tumblr, but I don't get it. It looks like a mess to me; I have trouble spotting the content I'm supposed to look at. - A lot of my friends were on snapchat when it first became popular, and the content they sent me was sometimes hilarious, but mostly boring. Most people I know have lost interest. - I've never been able to get into Twitter. - I LOVE reddit. I'm one of those weird people that finds the default front page hilarious (granted, it does get old after a while), but the more time I spend on it, the more I appreciate how it allows me to connect to people I never could have met in real life. For example, I was curious what police officers thought about a recent shooting in my hometown, so I posted to a law enforcement subreddit and got perspectives from all over the world, including from officers in New Zealand where they don't regularly carry firearms. Another time I was discussing SSL on the redditdev sub, and a reddit engineer jumped in and explained why reddit doesn't force https (infrastructure capacity reasons).
- 12y ago

kawliga 12y ago

Images like that concert photo really are unnerving. Instead of actually just having fun, people have become more concerned with letting everyone know how much "fun" they're having. It's so strange to me. "See how cool I am? Aren't I special?!?!"

grkvlt 12y ago
Or, people are actually having fun, and want to share and remember the experience. The two are not mutually exclusive, and most people enjoy looking back on a video or picture they took at a (possibly shared) event or experience, and can recreate or re-experience it that way. I think your cynical 'Aren't I special' motivation is going to be way off the mark for most of those people at the concert. How can you be special in a crowd of tens of thousands doing exactly the same thing?
- kawliga 12y ago
  No one wants to ACTUALLY remember the experience / recreate it. That's purely a justification of the vanity. And cynical? I don't think so and I'll explain why. It goes way beyond events like this concert. It's the notion of publishing every aspect of your life just so others will notice it. I once saw on facebook where a girl had posted an image of her family all huddled together, grievously hugging: "Just found out that my grandma has cancer." Who decides that's the time to step back and snap a photo for social media? And why, to get "likes"? Maybe add a filter somewhere in between. My brother saw the same thing as that concert image, but at a funeral. It's ALL to get noticement and it weirds me out.
- nosuchthing 12y ago
  There's definitely a certain breed of people who get off more on showing other people that they're AT a concert/event rather then participating in the experience of the event. It's evident that some people express little interest in the music being played, but rather enjoy taking selfies with the artists in the background.
  - grkvlt 12y ago

coldcode 12y ago

Teens are a separate subspecies of human. Eventually they metamorphose into adults. Trying to write apps to appeal to both is an exercise in frustration.

Lawtonfogle 12y ago

No Kik? Of the few really young mobile phone users I know who use social media, that and instagram are their go to apps.

tsunamifury 12y ago

I'm going to ask: Why do we care what teens use? - They don't make significant purchase decisions - Ad-views are mostly wasted on them - The interactions and contexts they like at their age, they likely grow out of before you can monetize the longterm relationships Why are we chasing after the teenage fools gold. Owning a communications channel that is used by adults making significant purchasing decisions on a regular basis while doing work via you channel seems to be infinitely more valuable.

bhayden 12y ago
I have a website for a video game that probably appeals to a lot of age groups, but the content is overwhelmingly generated by teenagers. I think it's safe to safe that a TON of the content on reddit, especially default subs, meme subs, and stuff like /r/atheism, is largely also made by teenagers. Even though they aren't useful viewers for ads or spending any money, it's important to understand the people that generate a large chunk of your site's content.
- tsunamifury 12y ago
  So teens are a vangaurd that is needed to attract 20's and 30's who will actually spend money? I don't think that adds up. 20's and 30's will use things like Tinder, Craiglist, eBay, etc that meet their needs and... generate useful outputs for both parties.
dragonwriter 12y ago
Teens may not have much in the way of independent resources, but they've always been an important market.