Why don’t teens use Twitter? Aren’t they supposed to be at the forefront of every single technology trend, fad, and movement?
Part of the reason is the kids who powered the growth of the Internet in general, along with Facebook and MySpace, are growing into adults themselves.
Further, Twitter is much more about a curated image as opposed to spontaneous ‘OMG, LOL, ROFL’ style text messaging.
Think about your favorite tweeters and how they incorporate intelligent writing, useful link resources, and distribute an interesting brand all their own. The payoff may be business opportunities and brand building instead of instant rewards or gossip. This is how Andrea Forte, an assistant professor at Drexel University, describes the disconnect in a NY Times article about Teens and Twitter Use:
“Your identity on Twitter is more your ability to take an interesting conversational turn, throw an interesting bit of conversation out there. Your identity isn’t so much identified by the music you listen to and the quizzes you take,” as it is on Facebook, she said. She called Twitter “a comparatively adult kind of interaction.”
Twitter is a Teen Branding Tool
What’s wrong with teens not using Twitter, anyways? Well, nothing. In fact it’s preferable to avoid the social media tool if you’re going to distribute shamelessly self-promotional messages or just gab with friends.
However, in the increasingly competitive global environment, you can never start early enough building a personal brand, and Twitter is a marvelous utility for that purpose. Imagine establishing a presence in your field of interest as a teenager, growing a huge community of followers, and having this resource available as you search for a job in college (or when you start a business).
The not-so-hidden benefit of using Twitter as a teen, a twenty-something, and beyond is building relationships. Once you start meeting new people on Twitter, it makes you more comfortable speaking with them face to face (Advertising Age has a concise description of these benefits).
In other words, you’re learning how to meet the people who will help you create a successful career and life’s plan, and who you will help in return. I’m less than 10 years removed from being a teenager, and I still recall my father encouraging me to speak up, meet new people, and get outside my comfort zone. It’s a lesson that serves me well to this day.
Life isn’t a John Wayne movie, partner. So how are you using Twitter to start new relationships? Maybe even more important, how are you teaching the teens in your life to use microblogging safely, responsibly, and effectively to build their own brand?
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Interesting question…I think the answer might be a tad more complicated like trying to really pin down the differences between Facebook, Twitter, and other social media application spaces. The “Twitter Experiment” is quite fascinating as an open ecology experiment.
All of my kids, (12, 15, 17, 19) do not “twitter” nor do any of their friends. After the email, IM & YouTube buzz faded for ad hoc interpersonal interaction faded, Facebook has seemed incorporated all for the features that interest the younger set into a “one stop shop”. (Of course, MySpace does this too…but that is another discussion) There doesn't seem to be any interest … yet.
Since I am bascially a Twitter newbie, so I may be speaking out of turn but Twitter evolved a unique component of actually generating an expectation of being “social” in real time, real space, i.e. the “tweetup”. Whether you go to a tweetup or not, there is a tempering of your “personal brand” to be less “in your face” and more “Hey, let's meet face to face”. What gives this expectation credence? It actually happens.
Joe,
Interesting post, and while I do agree with the branding part, I am not so sure I agree with the Tweeting part. That said, I think all should 'listen' for a while, do some searches on Twitter as an alternative to Google (or Bing).
I am more removed from my teenage years than you (do not worry just how much
But, from a couple of perspectives, I am a little closer. I have two teenagers, one in HS and one in College, plus I teach a freshman course at Champlain. From my perspective, there is a dependency upon the discipline of study, and the maturity of the teen (plus a few other things I am sure).
Like I tell my kids, 'there is no delete button on the Internet'. So, I am not against it, just a bit more cautious I suppose. I will be asking my students to join Twitter at some point this semester, but will also be offering some real guidance as well.
Thanks for continuing to share!
Mitch
Damn good insight.
Your mention of the lack of interest in YouTube, Twitter, etc from the teen generation is precisely what interests me. Not that I think teens should be tweeting gritty details of their lives, but instead building a foundation that will serve them well in the future.
Might be nice to have a 5 year old blog and Twitter presence with some content on it for when you decide to really fire on all cylinders.
Thanks for the note!
For the most part I agree with you.
Teens (younger ones) should not use social media without supervision, nor should they aspire to spend all their time Online when there are so many activities they need to engage in with friends to mature at the natural rate.
My proposal is for the mature, 17 year old teen (example) who can set up a simple blog and Twitter account, capturing their name early and building a small Web presence for later use. I ask myself a lot of. “If I had known then what I knew now” questions from time to time, and it makes me realize a teen or twenty-something doesn't need to be a social media maven, but they do have to begin thinking critically and set up a proper distribution method for the future.
Great comment as always Mitch!
Again Joe, you wrote what I was thinking but better (damn you’re quick).
Yes, I concur that if new internet people (note: I did *not* say young people) approach their social media pursuits as a portfolio instead of spur-of-the-moment, scratch-where-it-itches type of journal writing at best or insipid egocentric ramblings at worst then the value of the effort and experience increases dramatically. Consider the teacher who asks each student to keep a journal. We all remember that. There were more than one “what I had for lunch today” type of entries in ink no less, on paper. Think of the trees that sacrificed their existence for somewhat dubious results. I know that journals had more than one or two dreary thoughtless entries but there were tiny nuggets of thought and expression in there as well. As my teachers told me since only they had the courage, dedication and high pain threshold to actually read my student journals. Most people tell you you learn to write by writing and more writing and then rewriting. Now, add the social media’s aspect of immediate feedback (at times…good, bad, inane, encouraging…) along with the ease you can follow and see what the leaders in the field do and incorporate those best elements into your work, you have potentially environment for incubation of ideas, thoughts, or just mere notions. The exciting part…You can “test drive” your own creative ideas with a “low cost of entry” almost as easily as “the big guns”.
This is hardly news basically the story of human expression throughout the ages except the time delay between a thought, composition, publication and delivery to a huge number of potential readers is rapidly approaching zero. It is as exciting as it is perilous in equal measures.
If you look at it as a portfolio, I would look for a steady march of improvement, thoughtful curiosity, mindfulness, humor, insight, usefulness and creativity that will meandering to & fro. Given all of the great rivers, coastlines, mountains, lakes and vistas, I dare you to find a straight line.
I also agree with Mitch’s comment that whatever you do on the internet can live forever. Having searched dejanews and found USENET posting I did in the 80s, that point has never been clearer to me. The new people need some guidance or gentle advice. There is a proverb that I am fond of adapting as needed…”To control thoroughbreds, use a large meadow”
Don’t worry, I will rewrite this entry in the near future. You have been forewarned and have my sincerest apologies.
Dang…I thought I was only going to write 3-5 sentences agreeing with you and Mitch…dang…sorry again.
Hey Social Media Commando – I answered your comment on the other blog and this has brought me here.
Very interesting post, btw! Personally I think that teens don't tweet because other social media websites have all the features they need. That's how I first viewed Twitter, as a stripped down version of FB (in fact, I've written an entire post about this in my blog). Now my view has altered: I see Twitter as less of a social media site and more of a hybrid between a chat room and a super-fast search engine. This may simply not appeal to tweets – a large portion of people I meet on Twitter seem interested in it as a business tool (in a sense, me too).
Good observations.
Twitter may not address the immediate needs of teens, that's for sure. I agree with other bloggers that Twitter is directed more towards meeting new people (which is indeed handy for business), while sites like Facebook are easier for communicating with friends (the privacy wall is one big reason).
Should be exciting to see how Twitter monetizes microblogging in the future, especially now that it has such powerful buy-in from the adult (read: we have money) audience.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts Udi.