In a somewhat unsurprising study, it was revealed that teens find blogs to be boring. I can’t say that I’m shocked!
Teens prefer the hyper-paced platform of social networks like MySpace which, despite its apparent pox-like status amongst the adult world, still remains the platform of choice for teens.
Blogging is slowly becoming the domain of adults, as a recent Pew study shows more teens abandoning the medium for social networks.
The study, conducted by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, showed a decline in the number of teens who say they blog, from 28 percent in 2006 to 18 percent in 2009, when the study was conducted. Just 52 percent comment on their friends’ blogs, versus 76 percent three years ago.
By contrast, the survey found that about 10 percent of adults maintain a blog, a figure that has remained unchanged.
What does this mean for the future of blogging? My thoughts go like this: blogging may be popular with adults now, but what happens when these teens turn into young adults turn into taxpayers?
Will tomorrow’s teens ditch MySpace in favor of “my opinion”?
“You leave with the girl you brought to the dance,” as the saying goes. My point? Teens-turned-adults may not “adopt” the adult platform of blogging and may stick with the various social networks that have become second nature to them.
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This is an interesting study, and I will be interested in seeing the results of these teens as they grow up. Maybe the whole internet thing is just some fad that will be replaced by this virtual telepathy thing. Maybe the phone book will come back
Seriously though, I would imagine that vlogs will become the medium of choice as this next generation comes up. The ability to tell stories and detail feelings online through written copy will be replaced by video. The ease to post audio or video is so easy even now, that once these teens get the tools in their hands, this will be how web content will be created. Think ‘captains logs’ on star trek.
Also, While Google Wave doesn’t have a lot of undertow right now, As apps and platforms are built to further support and take advantage of it, I would imagine that this too would become a medium of choice. Chat is changing dramatically with today’s teens. The instant gratification that Wave offers and the ‘wiki like’ waves could be what interests the kids to create content.
Then again, Blogs could be like Hymns. A lot of hymns are rewritten every few years with the ‘popular’ style of music in mind. Maybe blogs will be rewritten in a similar way.
oh well, but didn’t they say that about teens and twitter.
the question is – if your are targeting teens with your blog; what needs to change that will address the short comings of blogging (maybe facebook is the place to look to since teens love it)
I too have not been a fan of blogging while I was a teen, but since growing up I tend to love it more and more every day.
Weird trend I am seeing nowadays is that Facebook is being inhabited by more and more old people, I am now talking about the 40+ year olds and twitter is already a place where young adults hang out.
Lets just hope blogging never dies, I for one would never discard mu blogging.