I have been on Twitter since the beginning but I have no idea why people use it. The length restriction is totally lame, UX is rough, and it seems infested with wannabe's (followers), selfish people that live to share their lives with hashtags and pics of innane shit, Ashton, self-proclaimed "social media experts"), and hookers. Facebook has old people, and I'm one of 'em.
Tech Trends I’ve Noticed As A 16 Year Old
41–50 of 71 posts
Re: Tech Trends I’ve Noticed As A 16 Year Old
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think the crankiness will be justified when HN fills up with "I'm a 15-year old who just made this app/website/blog post", but until then it just strikes me as a bit po-faced. No offence, this might be the first time you've had this particular grumble, but someone seems to do it every time a post like this hits the front page. Incidentally, I agree with you on the blog post. The other stuff this kid's doing - quite…
> Basically, I want to consult with my teenage self and use that advice to invest time/money! You and me both. As the eldest child, it was my job to walk the dog three times a day during school holidays. Most of the time I'd go alone. During those endless walks along riverbanks, through fields and down twisty country lanes I'd think and invent and create in my head. It was wonderful. I remember dreaming up a multi-pl…
Elite and Star Trek - sounds we had similar childhoods! I never did have a dog though...
I'm publicly rather derisive (in a joking way) about adults playing computer games but I know in my heart of hearts that if Eve (or indeed the new similar ones that are currently under development) is all it's cracked up to be it would be a really REALLY bad idea for me to ever try them.
As a rule, I steer clear of heroin, crack and Elite-type MMORPGs... ;)
Re: Tech Trends I’ve Noticed As A 16 Year Old
#43That last trend of people using Facebook less and Instagram more bolsters the justification for Instagram's large purchase. I wouldn't be surprised if Zuck can see that trend from their internal data, and the community at HN hasn't noticed it yet because it's happening with the younger generation first.
I thought the Facebook comment was pretty telling. I'm not even sure what FB's target demographics are, but the sense I got from the OP was Facebook is just a scene which was cool for a while but is now passe and they're moving on to other social networks.
It would seem FB for the younger folks has simply run its course as trend.
Re: Tech Trends I’ve Noticed As A 16 Year Old
#44They're leaving Facebook because their parents (and parent's friends) are now on Facebook and are friending them. Sure, there's privacy settings and groups, but what teenager wants to hang out at the same place as their mom?
That may be a small part of the reason, but here are some other reasons I would like to propose: 1. Up until a few weeks (months) ago Facebook's iPhone app was complete shit. My younger highschool brother (and all his friends) who are not techies in any sense, always complained about how it sucks. One time I even asked them why they switched to Instagram, and they told me the app works much better than the Facebook a…
What if I told you that people use these services in different ways?
My usage patterns are quite different from yours. Facebook is my primary service. I don't post on Twitter at all, and I rarely even check it, but sometimes I'll retweet something. I have friends that use twitter a ton, but they're actually the few power users. The majority of my friends either don't have a twitter or never post at all.
I also use Instagram very sparingly. I have an account but that was just to see what the hype was all about. I've posted a couple of pictures but a majority of my pictures and albums go on Facebook, where I can tag my friends, and have the vast amount of my friends see it in their feeds. A lot of my friend do have Instagram account but either they use it a lot or they don't use it at all, so again, it varies between those extremes. Those that post their pictures to Instagram, also post their pictures to Facebook, and since Facebook owns Instagram, I feel like it's a win-win for them (driving traffic in both places). They also recently blocked out twitter, so there's that too.
I actually think people are using Facebook more than ever from what I've seen. It's trying to do everything, but at the same time, it's doing everything well. It's powerful, and all your friends are on it.
The iOS app used to suck but it's actually one of the best apps I've seen now. It's super duper fast and they are continually adding functionality to it. Combining the FB and Messenger apps was such an awesome change and I haven't heard people complain about the iOS app ever since the redesign. I still hear complaints about the Android one though, and they definitely are working on that.
So yeah, I think different types of people use these platforms in different ways, but at the core they're all using Facebook, and also Facebook Connect, so I don't think FB is having an identity crisis at all.
EDIT: Another point I'd like to make is that above I pointed out how a lot of users use services like Instagram or Twitter in an "All or Nothing" manner. However I think we can agree that people on Facebook use it on a much wider scale. However,the important thing is, you don't have clustering at the extremes. More importantly, you don't have the clustering at the "Nothing" end. There are some people who don't have Facebook, but those that do, tend to use it in SOME manner in varying degrees which works out to FB's advantage.
Re: Tech Trends I’ve Noticed As A 16 Year Old
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think the crankiness will be justified when HN fills up with "I'm a 15-year old who just made this app/website/blog post", but until then it just strikes me as a bit po-faced. No offence, this might be the first time you've had this particular grumble, but someone seems to do it every time a post like this hits the front page. Incidentally, I agree with you on the blog post. The other stuff this kid's doing - quite…
It is the first time I've had this grumble, but I migrated here from Reddit to escape the onslaught of everybody-look-at-meeeeee-I'm-a-teenager!!! Apologies if I come across as grumpy; I guess others found more value in the post than I did.
Sorry to single you out and jump down your throat a bit!
Wholeheartedly agree in fighting the good fight and preventing HN from drowning in noise like everything else :)
Re: Tech Trends I’ve Noticed As A 16 Year Old
#46As someone who only recently graduated high school, many of the trends are ones I saw as well, but many I also did not see. At my school Google Talk ("gtalk") was as popular as Facebook chat. It is still used, but I personally prefer FB chat (for convenience). Not many people from my high school have a Twitter account, and many still don't. Even fewer use it regularly. I do see more and more friends using it though.…
I'm not sure, maybe it's a more fundamental thing.
It was 8 years ago when I was in high school, and back then everybody used AIM (AIM profiles anyone?). And before that, kids in the 80's used BBS's. I guess kids today use 'gtalk'.
It seems teenagers at a certain age just really want to be able to talk exclusively amongst friends, away from parents and prying public eyes.
Re: Tech Trends I’ve Noticed As A 16 Year Old
#47Interesting but this screams white upper class. If I went back to my middle or high school, (Madison WI, which is hardly as diverse as other areas) I don't think it would be the case that every 8th grader has an iPhone or iPod touch.
That's a good point. My school is often criticized as being a white upper class school, mainly because of it's location in my city. I thought about trying to mention this in my article, and in hindsight should have.
Thanks for writing that up! I wish I had been as aware of these things as you are when I was your age.
Re: Tech Trends I’ve Noticed As A 16 Year Old
#48I'm twenty - four years older than the author. Pretty crazy to compare our experiences...
5th grade (1/2): Everyone hangs out on Neopets, lots of people are excited about the GameCube. First time I ever heard of Google.
6th grade (2/3): Neopets is still popular (but popularity is starting to wane), people hang out on AIM, some start getting cell phones. lots of students carry their CD players to school and wear their headphones whenever they can.
7th grade (3/4): iPod Mini is the "hot device", more people have cell phones. everyone hangs out in AIM chat rooms.
8th grade (4/5): iPod Mini still in, most people now have cell phones. nerdy friends start playing World of Warcraft (some never stop, stealing to support the habit). Not many people know / care what MySpace is. A few people have gmail accounts.
9th grade (5/6): Everyone has MySpace. Most people are now using gmail. A few friends have blogs / Facebook. People torrent everything.
10th grade (6/7): MySpace is the hub of all social activity. Some start using Facebook once in a while. A few people create Twitter accounts. Only one or two rich kids have iPhones - they are teased mercilessly.
Re: Tech Trends I’ve Noticed As A 16 Year Old
#49That last trend of people using Facebook less and Instagram more bolsters the justification for Instagram's large purchase. I wouldn't be surprised if Zuck can see that trend from their internal data, and the community at HN hasn't noticed it yet because it's happening with the younger generation first.
I was talking to my daughter (17) about this. As others have said, Facebook is out, and Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr are in. The one comment about Facebook that stood out: "It's been taken over by moms."
Do they tend to keep private profiles, use pseudonymns or just broadcast it completely publicly with twitter? I don't recall twitter having 'friend' only posts.
Re: Tech Trends I’ve Noticed As A 16 Year Old
#50They're leaving Facebook because their parents (and parent's friends) are now on Facebook and are friending them. Sure, there's privacy settings and groups, but what teenager wants to hang out at the same place as their mom?
That may be a small part of the reason, but here are some other reasons I would like to propose: 1. Up until a few weeks (months) ago Facebook's iPhone app was complete shit. My younger highschool brother (and all his friends) who are not techies in any sense, always complained about how it sucks. One time I even asked them why they switched to Instagram, and they told me the app works much better than the Facebook a…
I think as social networks grow people need to periodically retrench to increase the signal (close friends, crushes) to noise (mom, zynga spam) ratio. FB's big problem here is the egalitarianism of friend status. Twitter has the same problem. G+ has more flexibility but ultimately relies on increased user effort.
The eventual winner in the space may well be whoever solves this: automatically figuring out which friends are more important to the user, making that measure invisible to users, adjusting it appropriately over time and then filtering to show everything from the most important as well as important updates from less important people while still allowing the user to see less important stuff from the less important people. The eventual winner could also be FB just on sheer forward momentum, size and how deep their hooks are into everyone.
I wonder if increasing bandwidth has also played a role in FB's declining engagement. FB was built as a pics and text based site but long term the trends will move away from this. Yeah it does video and music and everything else but they are stapled on. Over the past year I've watched my wife use FB less and less each night and things like skype and netflix more and more.