Too good to be true? Well, according to S. Craig Watkins’ recently published book “The Young and The Digital“, today’s teens are getting more addicted to social websites such as Facebook, YouTube and MySpace. There’s nothing peculiar about that. But what surprised me was his research, which showed that college students tend to describe the once most popular social networking platform, MySpace with the following words: crowded, trashy, creepy, uneducated, immature, predators and crazy. On the other hand, they love Mark Zukerberg’s Facebook so much that the Californian-based company was described as selective, clean, trustworthy, educated and authentic.
The results were based on Watkins’ in-depth interviews with 350 and over 500 surveys. It took him three years to compile all the information from his research. It was a full-scale immersion into what Watkins calls the “digital trenches,” and when he emerged, his understanding of the ways young people learn, play, bond, and communicate had become more detailed and dynamic.
To be honest, I’ve never used MySpace before and I won’t even give it a try. Why? Most of my friends are now on Facebook, spending hours daily slaving their profiles and uploading pictures. In teens’ web world, MySpace is so last year. It’s facing stiff competition from Facebook, and it’s losing users everyday, especially teens. So what makes Facebook so popular amongst teens? Leave your comments below…
You might want to check out these two posts:
5 Social Websites that are Unpopular Amongst Teens
5 Reasons Why Many Kids Don’t Use Twitter
[Image via biojobblog]