Comments on: Teens Don’t Tweet… Or Do They?

By: Why Teens Just Aren’t that Into Twitter | ANidea – powered by the minds at AgencyNet

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 17:14:36 +0000

[...] Danah Boyd and Ph.D student Fred Stuzman, both published excellent critiques of Nielsen’s methodologies [...]

By: The evolution of blogging « mick's leadership blog

The evolution of blogging « mick's leadership blog — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 14:22:24 +0000

[...] Danah Boyd’s post about Twitter and teens. [...]

By: sexytisha69

sexytisha69 — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 18:52:06 +0000

A research just come out saying teens are not using twitter and http://www.TeensAbout.com says they are going to change that. Do you think they have a chance? Their tagline is below.

TeenAbout is a live updates and texting project for-teens-by-teens giving all teens around the world a safe place to keep up with friends and make new friends (Live updats, texting) without having to deal with grown-ups on other social networks. Not only can you tell other teens around the world what you are up to, you can show them using our picture uploading feature. Talk about anything from breaking hot topics, news, to updates from friends. The question of the hour is…what are you doing?

By: James

James — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 11:39:08 +0000

I teach first year college students. They tell me twitter is for old folks — like the guy on the commercial tweeting “I am on the porch.”

Non-scientific survey of my students (both grad and undergrad) show that Twitter isn’t that big among college students.

By: heather

heather — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 17:27:22 +0000

we have some prominent teen twitterers/bloggers in Ireland.

not sure how this list below was drawn up, but
http://www.simplyzesty.com/social-media/irish-influencers-follow-twitter/ – includes a teen twitterer: @TrustTommy (15) and there are others. @alancostello, @endac, and i’ve seen more.

i think in ireland, people mix amongst ages more/between generation. i don’t know how to describe it. i am from the US, so this is something i noticed living here since 2000. however, my 15 & 16 year old nephews don’t know anyone on twitter (from rural donegal).

i think it depends on where you’re from (city dwellers v rural; headed for uni v not)

as an aside… uptake on bebo is v high here amongst secondary (highschool) students here.

By: CharlieH

CharlieH — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 00:19:44 +0000

For a completely anecdotal, unscientific single data point, I was suprised at how many twittering teens I saw when going to opening night for the movie Bruno at a large theatre in Pasadena, CA. 99% of the huge audience was 25 and under. While waiting in line and while waiting thru 40 (!) minutes of previews, I observed a lot of teens and early-20′s tweeting on their iPhones, presumably doing what social young people have always done – checking in with who is arriving when, gossip, etc.

A hypothesis is that twitter could replace standard SMS txt’ing for this purpose and for this segment given its advantage over SMS is the ability to browse each user’s msgs on their profile pgs.

By: jd

jd — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 11:50:27 +0000

Why is this controversial? If you don’t believe Nielsen, check Quantcast. The fact is, teens don’t tweet. Twitter is neither fun nor useful. Teens have figured this out faster than adults.

By: julian

julian — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 02:30:10 +0000

It’s kind of amusing that a lot of the furore derives from the fact that ‘teens’ and ‘tweet’ are alliterative – hence the misleading headline.

The Nielsen article’s headline is more complete, and a bit contradictory: “Teens Don’t Tweet; Twitter’s Growth Not Fueled By Youth”

Something that is often overlooked with regards to tweeting is that it is the most suited for use with a mobile platform. My guess is that the average teen doesn’t have a Blackberry/iPhone, compared to a young professional.

By: Roger Johnson

Roger Johnson — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 06:16:17 +0000

Please consider these edits:

I X live in Boston, MA. Buzzwords in my world include: public/private, identity, context, youth culture, social network sites, social media. I use this blog to express random thoughts about whatever I’m thinking X.

By: Roberta Zouain

Roberta Zouain — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 13:04:08 +0000

good post, danah.

regarding your note on seeing a bunch of replies from brazilian teens, recently a major local newspaper has published a piece on twitter usage by teens and interviewed some of them. most have reportedly started using the service because they were jonas brothers fans and thought that by tweeting the tag #jbbrazilwantsyouback (or something like that) up to the trending topics they would get the band’s attention – and they have actually made it to #1 tt for some time. this is pretty much the only reason for them to use the service, and most said they have abandoned it after the objective was accomplished.

oh, and btw, the “flash mob” was set up via orkut + msn messenger.