Why teens don’t use Twitter

August 28th, 2009 | Posted in Uncategorized 2 Comments »

Fascinating NYTimes.com article about why teenagers don’t use Twitter (linked by Eddie VanArsdall). A few reasons teens avoid Twitter: it makes it difficult to hide what they’re doing, parents don’t want teens interacting with strangers, the communication is less friend driven and more professional oriented, the tweets are better for marketing or asking questions or broadcasting ideas. Although I tweet, I certainly wouldn’t want my kids on Twitter. A kid may have a website, sure, but to actually know that people online are “following” my children would creep me out. On the other hand, the rampant texting (teens’ favorite means of communication) blows my mind. 500 in a day? Are you kidding?

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Tags: teens, texting, trends, Twitter, What I'm Reading

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Beirut says:

August 29, 2009 at 12:19 am

Good points you’ve got there! I have recently published a post entitled “5 Top Reasons Why Twitter is Not Very Popular with Teens” http://bit.ly/DRul6
I believe it adds some valid points to your discussion. Enjoy!

Tom says:

August 31, 2009 at 12:05 am

Beirut, interesting post. Thanks for pointing me to it. Lately I’ve been conflicted about Facebook versus Twitter. Since my posts on Twitter are syndicated to Facebook, a lot of people reply to me on Facebook rather than via Twitter. Facebook does seem to have a lot more functionality and personal appeal than Twitter. What’s your take on the two?

I’d Rather Be Writing – Tom Johnson