It was rather easy to predict (and years ago we did). As adults and marketer moved onto Facebook, teenagers would move away from it. Now a new survey from Piper Jaffray (and anecdotal evidence from any parent of a teenager) shows that Facebook has become all but an afterthought to American teenagers.
Don’t fret for Mark Zuckerberg; his company bought Instagram in 2012, and according to Piper Jaffray’s semiannual survey of American teens, the photo-sharing app is the most popular platform among teens, with one-third of respondents describing Instagram as the most important social network. Twitter finished second, named most important by 20% of respondents, followed closely by ephemeral chat app Snapchat with 19%.
Trailing all three was Facebook Inc.’s main app. Only 15% of teens in the survey said Facebook topped the list.
The social-media findings were part of a broader survey of teens’ attitude toward consumer brands, including apparel and electronics. Piper Jaffray has commissioned the survey twice a year for 15 years.
The most recent survey included 9,400 teens ages 13 to 19, a slight majority of whom – 56% – were male. They came from households with an average income of $68,000.
The social-media results actually changed little from the spring 2015 survey. Snapchat passed Facebook for third place, as the share of teens naming it their most important network grew to 19%, from 13%. Twitter’s standing fell to 20%, from 24%. But as recently as fall 2012, Facebook was by far the most important social network for the teens surveyed, at 42%, followed by Twitter and Instagram. Snapchat hadn’t yet launched.
