5 surprising things I learned about social media from a bunch of teenagers
When kids are involved, I’m all in. Any chance I’m given to hang out with babies, preschoolers, school-age children, teenagers, I automatically say yes.
And I’m the first to admit that I’m more on the maturity level of a child than an adult, but I tend to think (hope?) that I hide that fact well in the corporate world.
So, I jumped at the chance to represent my employer, Carolinas HealthCare System, at a career fair at West Charlotte High School a few weeks ago.
Here I was thinking the students would be learning all kinds of stuff from me. Little did I know that I would be the one walking away with the most new knowledge.
As a social media manager, it’s my job to keep up with the current digital networking trends and to know what apps are emerging as the latest, hottest thing. That’s why I always ask kids where they’re spending their time online.
Here’s what I found out about social media from the great group of 40+ teenagers I spoke with at the career fair:
(1) Facebook is making a comeback.
You heard it here. At least five of the students said Facebook was their No. 1 social media platform. Here’s a verbatim sample of that conversation …
Me: What’s your favorite social media channel?
Student: Facebook.
Me: What?!?! I thought Facebook was for old people like me?
Student: No, Twitter is for old people like you.
*Made a mental note to bathe in anti-wrinkle cream that night.*
So it almost goes without saying …
(2) Twitter is dead to them.
Twitter was not mentioned at all except that one time. (I’m trying to forget about it, so let’s not bring it up again, OK?)
(3) Snapchat and Instagram are equal in popularity.
For those who liked Snapchat the most, they said Instagram’s biggest problem is that it doesn’t have lenses. But when I asked if they would use Instagram more if it had lenses, some said Instagram would then be doing “too much.”
(4) No one had fake Instagram accounts.
I’ve read multiple articles on “Finsta” (a.k.a. “Finstagram” or fake Instagram) that say kids make these secondary profiles to not be found by their parents. They then use their “Rinstas” (real Instagram accounts) to post the pictures that they don’t mind being seen by parents or others. The students I spoke with at least said they don’t have fake accounts.
(5) They get “news” from Instagram.
Instagram might not be the first platform we think of for news. I also don’t think the students’ definition of news is the same as ours, but they said they turn to Instagram to get a sense of what’s going on in the world.
My how things have changed since growing up in the Stone Age. *Starts following Betty White on Twitter.*
Nothing better than sharing a drink with a fan – if you see me out at the club, just tell the bartender to put it on my tab #DrinksAreOnMe
— Betty White (@BettyMWhite) July 13, 2016
Photo: Katie McKiever
This story was originally published March 23, 2017 at 12:19 AM with the headline "5 surprising things I learned about social media from a bunch of teenagers."