Teen Opinion: Twitter and Instagram Are 'Rad,' Facebook 'the Pits'

By Madeleine Davies  |  May 22, 2013 | 7:05pm
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Oh, no! The teens are turning their Limited Too-clad backs on Facebook because it’s been invaded by parents and drama. Because no matter how many times they yell “STAY OUT OF MY FACEBOOK ROOM, MOM,” the moms will not stay out of their Facebook room. In fact, the moms keep coming back into their Facebook room to snoop and inexplicably share that old “Jessica’s Daily Affirmation” video over and over again.

This hostile environment is causing a mass teen exodus to sites like Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr where kids are free to share all of the Walden-filtered Kurt/Blaine Glee gifs that they want, far away from the prying eyes of parents and social pressures of creating a profile that makes them seem cool and interesting to their peers.

An extensive report by Pew Research found that, while kids aren’t full-on deleting their Facebook profiles, they are using them less and less because they find the structure to be confining.

Says one fourteen-year-old girl, “OK, here’s something I want to say. I think Facebook can be fun, but also it’s drama central. On Facebook, people imply things and say things, even just by a like, that they wouldn’t say in real life.”

Girl, I feel you. Like the other day my cousin Kyle posted something about him and his friends going to BW3s and I liked it, which is dumb because I don’t really care about him and his friends eating at BW3s. And another time, a friend posted a picture of her baby and I commented “squee” even though I’ve never said “squee” to a baby in real life.

More reasons why Facebook is Capital LAME, Population DORKS:

“It’s because [Facebook] is where people post unnecessary pictures and they say unnecessary things,” says an 18-year-old boy. “Like saying [someone] has a girlfriend, and a girl will go on and tag him in the picture like, ‘me and him in the sun having fun.’ Why would you do that?”

I can honestly say that I have no idea what he is talking about, which clearly means that I am old and confused. All I know is that I’m currently deleting all of my photos tagged “me and him in the sun having fun,” so that I don’t look like such an ancient, drama-mongering idiot.

Much like you yourself probably felt in middle school, the rejection of Facebook by the kids at the cool table has investors feeling nervous. “Our younger users … are aware of and actively engaging with other products and services similar to, or as a substitute for, Facebook,” the company warned back in February.

Get over it, Zuckerberg — your status with teens just went from “In a relationship” to “It’s complicated.” #ZuckerBURNED.

Teens Are Turning Away from Facebook Because Tumblr Is Real, and Parent-Free [The Atlantic Wire]

Image via Edyta Pawlowska/Shutterstock.

 
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