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Facebook 'dead and buried to teens'

2013-12-30 16:20 China Daily Web Editor: Yao Lan
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Facebook 'dead and buried to teens', research finds

Facebook is 'dead and buried' to older teenagers, an extensive European study has found, as the key age group moves on to Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp and Snapchat.

Researching the Facebook use of 16-18 year olds in eight EU countries, the Global Social Media Impact Study found that as parents and older users saturate Facebook, its younger users are shifting to alternative platforms.

"Facebook is not just on the slide - it is basically dead and buried," wrote Daniel Miller, lead anthropologist on the research team, who is professor of material culture of University College London.

"Mostly they feel embarrassed to even be associated with it. Where once parents worried about their children joining Facebook, the children now say it is their family that insists they stay there to post about their lives."

Teens do not care that alternative services are less functional and sophisticated, and they also unconcerned about how information about them is being used commercially or as part of surveillance practice by the security services, the research found.

"What appears to be the most seminal moment in a young person's decision to leave Facebook was surely that dreaded day your mum sends you a friend request," wrote Miller.

"It is nothing new that young people care about style and status in relation to their peers, and Facebook is simply not cool anymore."

In part of the study's research with Italian Facebook users, 40% of users had never changed their privacy settings and 80% said they "were not concerned or did not care" if their personal data was available and accessed, either by an organisation or an individual.

Information that people choose to publish on Facebook has generally been through a psychological filtering process, researchers found - unlike conversations, photos and video shared through more private tools such as Skype, or on mobile apps.

"Most individuals try to present themselves online the way they think society is expecting them to," wrote contributing anthropologist Razvan Nicolescu on Thursday.

"It seems that social media works not towards change – of society, notions of individuality and connectedness, and so on – but rather as a conservative force that tends to strengthen the conventional social relations and to reify society as Italians enjoy and recognise it.

"The normativity of the online presence seems to be just one expression of this process."

调查显示Facebook已在青少年中失宠

一项广泛的欧洲研究发现,一些稍大些的青少年不再使用Facebook,转而使用Twitter、图片分享应用Instagram、即时通讯WhatsApp和阅后即焚照片应用Snapchat。

全球社交媒体的影响研究(Global Social Media Impact Study)调查了欧盟的八个国家中16-18岁的Facebook用户,发现随着父母和年长的用户渗透到Facebook,年少的用户们纷纷转向其他社交平台。

英国伦敦大学的物质文化教授丹尼尔·米勒带领了一个人类文化学团队实施了这个调查。他写道:“Facebook不仅仅是每况愈下这么简单了——它基本上灰飞烟灭了。”

“他们甚至以与Facebook有关联为耻。家长曾经不愿孩子上Facebook,而现在孩子们说,是家长坚持让他们上网分享自己的生活。”

这项调查发现,虽然其他社交平台功能不全、不完善,但是青少年们并不在意。他们也不担心自己的信息被用于商业活动或是被情报机构监视。

米勒写道:“看起来,年轻人摒弃脸谱网的最大原因无疑是看到母亲给自己的好友发送交友请求。”

“这不是什么新鲜事:年轻人希望与同龄人在风格地位上保持同步,而Facebook已不酷了。”

在这项调查的意大利Facebook用户有关的部分中,40%的用户从未更改隐私设置,80%的人称自己“不担心也不在乎”他们的个人信息是否会被组织或个人盗取。

调查发现,人们在Facebook上公开的信息通常经过心理过滤的过程。这不同于更为私人工具,如Skype或手机应用上分享过的对话、图片和视频。

12月26日,参与调查的人类学家拉兹万·尼克勒素写道:“大部分人希望自己的网络形象符合社会预期。”

“看起来社交媒体的工作并未改变,如社交、个性化和联系等等。但是就像意大利人想的那样,它倒是一个加固传统社会关系,是社会具象化的守恒力。”

“网络活动的规范性是此过程的表现之一。”

 

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