An intern for Morgan Stanley in London recently wrote a research paper about the media usage patterns of his (our) age group. One executive in the company referred to his report as "one of the clearest and most thought-provoking insights we have seen."
The New York Times reported that the intern's report "said that teenagers were eager to try new media technologies and deftly switch among them, but they were deeply opposed to opening their wallets to pay for the services. He also suggested that Twitter...wasn't necessarily holding his peers' attention."
"'Teenagers do not use Twitter,'" the intern said, explaining that many have opened accounts on the site but eventually stray away mostly because "'they are not going to update it...texting Twitter uses up credit, and they would rather text friends with that credit.'"
Do you believe that teenagers make more use of Twitter than the intern suggested, or do you agree with him that it is not consistently utilized by that age group?
If you agree with him that it is not widely used by teenagers, do you agree that the reason is quotas set by texting plans? I personally am not aware of many teens on Twitter but I found this to be really interesting logic and am not sure I buy it. After all, teenagers spend hours in front of the computer watching videos on YouTube, chatting on Instant Messenger, and keeping tabs on friends via Facebook; why wouldn't they use the online version of Twitter if they do not wish to use their text message quotas?
2 comments:
I absolutely love Twitter. But I can see why teenagers haven't caught on yet.
My 15 year old sister is one of those teenagers who doesn't use Twitter. I suggested it to her after realizing she constantly updates her Facebook status. Her answer?
"No. I don't want to because I have to use my text messages for that." (she only has 200 per month)
As mentioned in this post, teenagers spend hours in front of the computer. I'm not exactly sure why they don't use the online version of Twitter. Perhaps it's because the only thing you can do on Twitter is update your own tweets and read tweets posted by other people. Whereas Facebook, Myspace, and other social media sites have more to offer (video, photos, notes, etc. all on the same site), Twitter doesn't offer as much. Sure, you can post photos, notes, video, and more in your tweets through links, but it will take you to a completely separate web page.
Of course, there isn't a huge difference between Twitter and other social media sites. But you only need a small difference to cause people, especially teenagers, to avoid using a site.
-Desiree.
By the way, I really enjoy reading this blog.
Hi Desiree,
Your insight into the fact that Facebook and Myspace offer more services on one site was really insightful! I hadn't thought of that and I think you're definitely onto something.
Thanks for your input and for tuning into our blog!
-Emily
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