WASHINGTON, May 22 (UPI) — Teens are sharing more about themselves on social media but many favor Twitter to avoid parents and “oversharing” they see on Facebook, a U.S. poll indicates.
While social media use is skyrocketing among teenagers, they aren’t happy with a Facebook community that involves “drama,” stress and their parents, the Pew Research Center said in a report released Tuesday.
Teens “dislike the increasing number of adults on the site, get annoyed when their Facebook friends share inane details, and are drained by the ‘drama’ that they described as happening frequently on the site,” the report said.
Eighty-one percent of teens said they use social-networking sites, an increase from 55 percent in 2006, and Facebook remains the most widely used despite teens’ dissatisfaction some aspects of the service, Pew reported.
However, many teens surveyed said they had moved to networks like Twitter and Instagram to be “freed from the social expectations and constraints of Facebook.”
Seventy percent of teens said they’re Facebook friends with their parents.
One 19-year-old in a focus group said she used sites other than Facebook because “my mom doesn’t have that.”
Of the teens surveyed, 26 percent said they were on Twitter in 2012, up from 12 percent the previous year, 11 percent were on Instagram and 5 percent were on Tumblr, the Pew report said.
Copyright 2013 United Press International, Inc. (UPI).
