According to a recently released report by the Pew Research Center, Facebook continues to be the predominant social network used by teenagers. However a growing number of teen users are expressing diminishing enthusiasm for the site and are instead flocking to other outlets such as Tumblr and Twitter to socialize.
Of the 81 percent of teenagers, aged 12-17, who use social networks, nearly 94 percent reported having a Facebook profile. Despite the high figure, many teen users have grown to "dislike the increasing number of adults on the site, and are drained by the "drama" on the site", the report stated. Additionally, teens cited feeling burdened by the, "social expectations and constraints" of Facebook as primary reasons for their discontent.
In contrast, a quarter of teens on the Internet are now using Twitter to keep connected with their friends and the world at large, an increase of 16 percent from two years ago. Popular Facebook owned photo sharing application Instagram and Yahoo acquired micro-blogging site Tumblr were also reported to have a greater number of teen users, with 11 and 5 percent respectively.
Disenchantment with Facebook likely has to do with the primary source of nearly all teenage angst, interaction with their parents. According to the report, 75 percent of teenagers stated being "friends" with their parents on Facebook yet only 5 percent restricted parental access to their profile. The lack of anonymity and probable fear of parental reprisal on Facebook, makes the freedom of using alternative social networking platforms much more attractive for teenage users.
For parents, the primary concern over teenage social networking according to the study was not over potential "oversharing" of their teenagers, but rather the ability of third-party sources accessing private child information. Approximately 80 percent of parents expressed strong concerns about non-permitted marketers targeting their children, where as only 40 percent of teens felt the same concern.
The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project with assistance from The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University polled 1600 parents and teenagers for the study, with a 4.5 percent margin of error.