Teens Tell Us Why They're So Over Facebook

According to a new survey by the Pew Research Foundation, teens are officially over Facebook. The study, which came out yesterday, says only 51 percent of US teens surveyed use the social media website—a drastic 20 percent decrease from a similar study done in 2015.

The survey found visual platforms were more popular: 85 percent of teens used YouTube, 72 percent used Instagram, and 69 percent used Snapchat. Twitter was used by only 32 percent of teens surveyed.

Facebook is clearly trying to recoup a younger audience, with new initiatives like its new Youth Portal. Are they into it, though? VICE asked a bunch of kids in Delhi what they thought about the social networking site.

Sushant Bhatt, 16
“I prefer Musically over Facebook any day. It’s time-pass. Even if you don’t make and post your own video, you go there to see to what cool things others are doing. It also takes less storage than Facebook. Anyone with an smartphone can write anything against me on Facebook and I I can just block or report them. That’s stupid.”

Tanvi Bhandari, 18
Everyone is on Facebook and it’s turned pretty boring. It’s just debates like Hindu-Muslim or India-Pakistan going around. People are offended so much and use swear words. People fight on Instagram too, but the issues are better. After the Zuckerberg controversy, I don’t trust Facebook with my data anymore.

Sneha Tiwari, 19
There are a lot of cool filters on Instagram and Snapchat and Boomerang. You can hide your real face by using filters. Here people are cooler than they are in real life, including me. You can see real stories of celebrities and even contact your favourite celebrities. On Facebook, I think their profiles are handled by their managers.

Gurpreet Kaur, 18
Facebook has a lot of creeps. All the guys who wanted to behave as a girl make an account with the name of Angel Priya. One of my friends also have a fake account. On Instagram, you have more control over who sees your pictures, while on Facebook, anyone with internet can download your picture.

Hitesh Negi, 15
“Facebook drains a lot of battery.” It slows down your phone a lot and you have to download a messenger app separately—which further takes away the phone storage. People post anything on Facebook, however stupid it is. It’s strange that some of them even post after coming out of an hospital. People also keep tagging you in useless stuff.

Anik Rawat, 15
Instagram is more time-pass. We can even be connected to our favourite celebrities. They often like and comment to our replies on their posts. On Facebook, most of the celebrity accounts are fake or not managed by them themselves.

I use Instagram to follow celebrities. On Facebook, it is managed by them only. I would know about the daily life of my favourite star. Facebook is old. Snapchat offers a lot more options than Facebook.

Siddharth Jain, 19
Facebook is more about conversation, that people don’t care about nowadays. It’s more biased towards people trying to show their knowledge or a source of information. We just want to be connected. For people of my age, that is not important. People share pictures from their childhood and from their real life, which is much more interesting.

Facebook is just talk, and too very low level. On Instagram, there are nice pictures, funny memes—that sort of stuff. Any new trend first comes to Instagram or Snapchat and then moves onto other places.

Awesh Satwesh, 18
Facebook is fake. Nobody is interested in it. You can see the real faces of your favourite celebrity on Instagram or Snapchat. On Facebook pages, they would share photos taken from a DSLR camera, clicked by a professional— with beautiful costumes, hair styles or makeup.

On Snapchat and Instagram, he/she would post an ordinary picture taken just from their smartphone. Stuff like eating, meeting with their friends or spending time with their dog. On Instagram, the celebrities feel they are more like us.

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