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A Teenager’s View on Social Media

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Re: A Teenager’s View on Social Media

#131

Post by crazypyro »

spigoon wrote: post #113
crazypyro wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, except that is basically saying his analysis is worthless, in my honest opinion. Combine this with the fact that he is clearly biased towards Snapchat (just look at his personal Twitter and blog), yet doesn't disclose that fact, and you get a bad article that is taken way more seriously than it should be. Its similar to that fake radar app that claims it detects police radar from your smartphone then at the bot…

The title clearly says "A Teenagers View on Media". It's not a little disclaimer at the bottom of the page that says "This is only my view". It's right in the title and opening paragraph.

Right, but I think it serves the same purpose. People willingly ignore it.

Either way, the original poster I responded to with the anecdote wasn't even the author of the article, but someone on here who provided another anecdote, but didn't give the same such warning or any indication that they knew what they were saying wasn't an actual relevant argument....

Re: A Teenager’s View on Social Media

#132

Post by hellbanner »

Another anecdote for file: I spoke with an early-twenty business student, also studying in Texas. Snapchat and GroupMe were their preferred chat programs.

I personally prefer WeChat for its Group Voice chat. This was developed in Shenzhen; Mandarin is notably tonal so voice is a selling point.

Re: A Teenager’s View on Social Media

#134

Post by MarcScott »

themodelplumber wrote: post #31

This is weird; the author possibly met with the CEO of Snapchat more than once recently: https://twitter.com/thatswattsup/status/546018511902867456 > Can't wait to visit my friends at @Snapchat again tomorrow :D https://twitter.com/thatswattsup/status/545326840940740608 > Loved hanging out with @evanspiegel yesterday, he's one of the nicest and more genuine guys I've met. Thanks for having me @Snapchat! ...influencer…

I was teaching a lesson on cryptography to a bunch of twelve year olds this morning, and with reference to https, I asked how many had used Facebook before school - no hands, how about Instagram - no hands, how about Snapchat - half the class put their hands up. It's definitely the most popular network amongst teens in my (UK) school.

Re: A Teenager’s View on Social Media

#135

Post by alexqgb »

crazypyro wrote: post #100
ghshephard wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Re: "These are all just anecdotes" - yes, he made it very clear in the beginning of his essay: "This article will not use any studies, data, sources, etc. This is because you can easily get that from any other technology news website and analyze from there. I’m here to provide a different view based off of my life in this “highly coveted” age bracket. That being said, I'm not an expert at this by a long shot and I'm…

Yeah, except that is basically saying his analysis is worthless, in my honest opinion. Combine this with the fact that he is clearly biased towards Snapchat (just look at his personal Twitter and blog), yet doesn't disclose that fact, and you get a bad article that is taken way more seriously than it should be. Its similar to that fake radar app that claims it detects police radar from your smartphone then at the bot…

Well, I wouldn't say "worthless". If you're looking for a macro view of usage, sure, but again it's unfair to expect that from a piece that starts by flatly stating that's not what it provides.

What it does provide is a very clear sense as to how all of these different services end up playing very complimentary roles in an individual's life. Even if the particular services involved have a popularity that waxes or wanes, the broader picture formed by the complex decision making that resolves people's thoughts and feelings into one network or another remains fascinating. And that aspect of social media seems like it's here to stay.

So sure, this perspective may be worthless to you, but most smart people are sophisticated enough to realize that others have perspectives different from theirs. A person designing or developing social networks, for instance, would have to think about the stuff in this post very carefully if they had any hope of getting their own product into the mix. Yes, they would need the macro view too, but in the absence of the direct personal perspective (which is the perspective held by literally every single one of their prospective users), their efforts are guaranteed to fail.

Short version: if you're going to call something "worthless" be sure to include the essential qualifier "to me". Otherwise you just seem ridiculously self centered.

Re: A Teenager’s View on Social Media

#136

Post by roc »

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #3

This is filled with gems that old farts like me (I'm 30) don't have any idea about. If I don’t get any likes on my Instagram photo or Facebook post within 15 minutes you can sure bet I'll delete it. Super interesting take - it's as though they are posting not to show people stuff but to get people's approval for what they are posting. Simple but critically different in my opinion. Facebook is often used by us mainly…

> "it's as though they are posting not to show people stuff but to get people's approval for what they are posting"

Which is generally how the average westerner has behaved for generations. They don't acquire and desire clothes, music, books, movies, ideas, hair-styles and gadgets solely based on best personal fit. They acquire and desire based -- very heavily -- on the opinions of those tribes they admire.

(And while teenagers and young-adults are far more susceptible to this sort of "fashion", older folks are far from immune to it.)

Re: A Teenager’s View on Social Media

#137

Post by Anthony-G »

revelation wrote: post #107

An American Teenager's View on Social Media There, much better now.

A North American Teenager's View on Social Media

Even better. Though I'm sure someone from North America could improve on that title.

FWIW, I thought it was a very well-written piece which outlined some of the subjective pros and cons of various social media. As someone who doesn't spend any time on any of the social network sites and who barely uses a smart-phone, I found it to be quite informative.

Edit: After posting this comment, I used a search for the word "North" and saw that quite a few other commentators had already made the same observation.

Re: A Teenager’s View on Social Media

#138

Post by efa »

"Facebook is dead to us but we use it for X,Y, and Z." I found this kinda funny. Obviously it's not dead to you if you use it for a variety of purposes. Seems like friends I have with teenage kids are mostly on Facebook. Now it may not be their primary outlet. But "dead" seems to be a bit of an exaggeration.

Re: A Teenager’s View on Social Media

#139

Post by k-mcgrady »

MarcScott wrote: post #134
themodelplumber wrote: post #31

This is weird; the author possibly met with the CEO of Snapchat more than once recently: https://twitter.com/thatswattsup/status/546018511902867456 > Can't wait to visit my friends at @Snapchat again tomorrow :D https://twitter.com/thatswattsup/status/545326840940740608 > Loved hanging out with @evanspiegel yesterday, he's one of the nicest and more genuine guys I've met. Thanks for having me @Snapchat! ...influencer…

I was teaching a lesson on cryptography to a bunch of twelve year olds this morning, and with reference to https, I asked how many had used Facebook before school - no hands, how about Instagram - no hands, how about Snapchat - half the class put their hands up. It's definitely the most popular network amongst teens in my (UK) school.

>> "It's definitely the most popular network amongst teens in my (UK) school."

I'm not sure I'd put to much weight on that. From my personal use and what I've seen people seem to spend longer periods of time on Facebook. Whereas Snapchat requires seconds at a time. When you're asking who used something before school you have to remember these kids likely got out of bed, didn't have time to shower and ran to the bus :) I'd love it if you had also asked about what they did after school the previous day. Of course my evidence isn't very robust either but I don't think you can draw your conclusion from that survey.

Re: A Teenager’s View on Social Media

#140

Post by sehutson »

solarmist wrote: post #71
josu wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So were Yahoo and AOL. If specialized apps start to show up, people may start ditching FB altogether.

He mentions exactly that in the article. A lot of 10-16 year olds he knows don't even have FB accounts.

10-16 year olds also live with their parents and often "hate" them. Now that more adults are there, it's not as natural to get on Facebook as a teenager/pre-teen.

Will they join later when they move out and seek ways to stay connected with family? Who knows - but I can definitely see why they're not there yet. I'm older, but the only reason I joined Facebook was to have a way to keep in touch with family once I moved 2000 miles away to California.

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