Recently I have found that most of my high schoolmates checked their Facebook sites less often, and some of them even have deleted their accounts. As for me, most of online social activity revolved around Facebook before I graduated from high school. But now, I rarely add photographs or post updates about what I have been doing anymore.
From my point of view, the function of Facebook may now not be different from what it was, so the service becomes lack of appealing to me. Perhaps it is no longer as crucial as it once for social survival.
So where are teenagers going instead of Facebook? I prefer to use WeChat, a mobile messaging app that is rapidly growing in popularity, especially among Chinese communities. In Western countries, teenagers also switch their desire to Snapchat, where youngsters can have fun and enjoy themselves and truly be themselves. Also, there are other similar apps (Olson, 2013), for instance, Twitter, Skype, Instagram, Kakao Talk (popular in Korea) and Line (popular in Japan).
It is clear that teenagers are always the initial adopters, if teens are going to use Facebook less often, youth-oriented advertisers will certainly spend less of their marketing budget on the site, which will definitely affect the further steps of the companies.
Reference:Olson, P. (2013, November 12). Here’s where teens are going instead of Facebook. Forbes. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/parmyolson/2013/11/12/heres-where-teens-are-going-instead-of-facebook/