Do teens hate Twitter?
Kids may be warming up to the micro-blogging site, which was embraced first by adults
Teenagers are usually the first to adopt tech innovations, said Jeff Bertolucci in PC World, but they've "shunned" Twitter. According to a recent New York Times article, "teens would much rather text than tweet," which explains why only 11 percent of Twitter users are aged 12 to 17. Maybe teens think Twitter is "uncool" because everyone—including parents and teachers—can see it, while texting "is the wireless equivalent of passing notes."
"Kids used to hate Twitter," said Dan Frommer in Silicon Alley Insider, but according to comScore statistics "they don't any more." Older people have always been Twitter's bread and butter, but people between ages 12 and 24 "have been Twitter's fastest growing age group of late."
Teens may be using Twitter more, said Sarah Perez in Read Write Web, but it's hard to say. The comScore numbers would be more meaningful if they focused on just the teens, instead of lumping the kids together with young adults as old as 24. But the real question is why everyone's suddenly obsessed with the teenage crowd on Twitter. "Perhaps it's simply because adults can't believe that, for once, they're the group responsible for the birth of an Internet phenomenon and not the other way around."
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