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今天这篇文章可能要刺伤某些人的神经——统计数据表明: 青少年不喜欢Twitter。最近尼尔森报告显示25岁以下的Twitter用户只占总数的16%。 这个结果有点让人吃惊，特别是那些目前正使用Twitter的青年们。

不管怎样数据是不会错的，那么人们关心的问题就来了：为什么青少年不喜欢用Twitter呢？要分析这个问题的原因不仅要搞清为什么这些人不青睐微博客，重要的还在于想好Twitter将来的发展之路。我们来看看这个统计数据以及25岁以下青年的想法，相信就能明白为什么青少年中使用Twitter的人会这么少。

统计结果

这里有两个关键的数据: Twitter、TweetDeck用户中24岁以上的分别占84%和90%。虽然还有一些数据没有完全统计，但是根据尼尔森报告 ：Twitter.com对青少年这一关键群体的覆盖率为6.6%而成年人的覆盖率却将近两倍（12.1%）。

这可能就是所谓的网络效应：由于更多成人使用Twitter，就会有越来越多的成人觉得有必要使用它，相反，越少的青少年使用Twitter，因此就越少的青少年对Twitter感兴趣。如果这种趋势一直持续下去就想滚雪球一样。

还有其他的统计结果也表明青少年不使用Twitter这种趋势已非常普遍。在comScore（网站统计机构）四月份调查结果显示，中年人是推动Twitter发展的主要动力，下面是引用comScore的一段话:

调查结果显示18-24的青少年（传统的社会媒介较早接触者）比平均数低12%，实际上是25-54岁这一人群推动Twitter的发展，更确切地 说是45-54岁的人群，他们访问Twitter比平均数超过36%，是访问Twitter最高的一组人群。紧接的是25-34这一组，超过平均数 30%。

甚至早在一月份，这种趋势就开始加快。如果看看Quantcast数据，我们也是看到同样的情景。

这是怎么回事呢？

Twitter跟Facebook或MySpace不同，因为它不单单关心朋友圈。正如在我的文章对Twitter新主页的分析的描述可以看出，Twitter 成为世界资讯的播放中心。虽然，你也可以更新你的近况，不过在Facebook上你可以更轻松实现这一点。与Twitter相比，Facebook等其他社区网站所不能做的就是实时提供诸如#伊朗大选危机这样的最新时事事件。

不过，青少年关心这些吗？在此，我不想指出各个年龄段对朋友的关心度，不过我可以非常确信地说：青少年比其他任何年龄组的人都更在乎朋友。是现实生活（以及网络生活）中的友情推动了MySpace、Facebook、Bebo等的发展。它们更注重社交关系，这也是为什么超过50%的Facebook用户是在25岁以下，并且甚至更年龄更大的用户也正迅速加入到这些队伍当中。在何时使用Twitter，何时使用Facebook?这篇文章里也曾对两者的区别做了分析。

Twitter就不是很注重这种社交关系，Retweets主要是用于共享资源， @replies 可以让公众参与到你与某个人的对话中，通常你不会用它来跟朋友交流，它最大的价值在于吸引对话题感兴趣的用户。

还有另一个我经常听到的问题：青少年在Twitter上无话可说，对于商业用户、blogger们来说，Twitter 是一个强大的推广工具，但总体来讲，青少年并不关心这些。只有那些非常有野心的少年才会创业，更多的少年关心的是校园的生活，并不指望通过个人空间成为某 方面的专家。对他们来说，Facebook更适合他们。

Twitter在青少年中会有怎样的将来呢？

从统计结果得出：

• 只有大约16%的Twitter用户在25岁以下，而Facebook和MySpace的用户中超过半数都是25岁以下。
• 25岁以下的人群访问Twitter的人数比平均数少12%。
• 成年人访问Twitter次数超过青少年将近两倍。

当然这可能会有所转变，但是青少年不会成为Twitter的主要用户，他们仍只占用户群的16%以下，由于他们谈到Twitter，他们的朋友才会开始加入，比例才有所提升。名人使用Twitter当然也有点帮助，不过最重要的是朋友是否使用Twitter。

Twitter以它目前的形式主要的用户群仍将是25岁以上的人群。因为其提供了大量的观众（读者）对25岁以上的人来说它更具有吸引力。Facebook在这方面与Twitter不同，青少年更愿意用Facebook跟他们的朋友交流。

Twitter想要改变这种局势，主要有两个办法：

• 不断发展壮大让青少年无法忽视它的存在，也就是同行压力效应。“啊？难道你还不知道Paula Abdul ? 哎呀！原来你不用Twitter。”
• 以青少年主要目的是保持跟朋友联络为方向，增加一些功能，为他们提供新的价值。

Twitter需要寻求一种从大量的青少年群体中获利的途径，以保持良好的发展。增加新功能或以朋友圈为重心的第三方应用，Twitter才会吸引更多的青少年用户。

原文：Why Teens Don’t Tweet

We struck a nerve with a lot of people this morning with our article Stats Confirm It: Teens Don’t Tweet. In it, we explained how a recent Nielsen report shows that only 16 percent of TwitterTwitter users are under 25. The response was overwhelming – especially from teenagers who currently use Twitter.While the entire debate is a healthy one, there’s been a lack of focus on the most important question of all: Why aren’t teens using Twitter? The answer to this question is essential to not only understanding why Generation Y has not embraced microblogging, but to the very future of the medium. Let’s take a look at the statistics and the thoughts of my fellow under 25-ers to understand just why there’s a shortage of teen tweeters:

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The Stats

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If you read our Teens Don’t Tweet article, you’ll come across two key stats: that 84% of Twitter users are over 24 years old, and that 90% of TweetDeckTweetDeck users are over that age as well. There are some other stats we didn’t touch on though, including that, according to Nielsen, Twitter.com’s reach to this key age group is 6.6%, while it’s nearly double (12.1%) for adults.
You can probably attribute this to the network effect: since more adults are using Twitter, more adults feel the need to try it. Since less teens are on the social media website, less teens feel inclined. This is a snowball effect that will only get larger if the trend continues.

There are other statistical studies that show this trend is prevalent as well. In an April comScore study, the website measurement agency found that Twitter’s middle-aged demographic was the driver of its hyper growth. Here’s what comScore specifically said:

What [Reuters reporter Alexei Oreskovic] discovered was that 18-24 year olds, the traditional social media early adopters, are actually 12 percent less likely than average to visit Twitter (Index of 88). It is the 25-54 year old crowd that is actually driving this trend. More specifically, 45-54 year olds are 36 percent more likely than average to visit Twitter, making them the highest indexing age group, followed by 25-34 year olds, who are 30 percent more likely.

Even as far back as January, people were picking up on this trend. And if we look at the Quantcast numbers, we see the same picture:

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So what’s going on?

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Twitter’s different than Facebookfacebook or MySpaceMySpace because Twitter is not about your friends. As I highlighted in my analysis of Twitter’s new homepage, Twitter is quickly becoming the epicenter of world events. Yes, you can update your status, but you can do that just as easily on Facebook. What you can’t do on other social media sites is learn about the #IranElection crisis in real-time.

But does this really interest teenagers? Teenagers are notorious for being terrible at social engagement, voting, and keeping up with the news. While I don’t want to typecast an entire age demographic, I can say this with confidence: Teens, more than any other age group, care about their friends. It’s the continuation of real-life friendship (and the creation of online ones) that has driven the tremendous growth of MySpace, Facebook, Bebo, etc. It’s about the social graph. That’s why more than 50 percent of Facebook users are under 25, even while older users are joining quickly. We even highlighted these points in When Do You Use Twitter Versus Facebook?

But Twitter is far less about the social graph than it is about the overall conversation surrounding an item. Retweets are about sharing items and @replies are about allowing the public to be part of a conversation you’re having with someone. If you just follow your friends on Twitter, you will barely be using it. A lot of the value comes from following interesting people and celebrities.

Here’s the other problem that I’ve heard consistently: teenagers have nothing to say on Twitter. Twitter is a huge promotional tool – for businesses, for bloggers, for self-described experts – but teenagers aren’t as concerned with these things as a whole. Only the most ambitious teenagers start businesses, and most are worried about school, not about becoming recognized as an expert in his or her space. If they want to update friends on their cereal or their lives, Facebook’s far more effective.

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So what’s going to happen with teens and Twitter?

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From the stats, here’s what we know:

- Only about 16% of Twitter’s users are under 25. Compare that to well over half for both Facebook and MySpace

- The under 25 demographic is 12% less likely to visit Twitter than the average

- Adults are 2x more likely to try Twitter than teenagers

This will change. While teenagers don’t make up a large part of Twitter, they are still 16% of the userbase. As they talk about Twitter, their friends will start to join and the teenage pick-up rate will increase. Celebrity usage of Twitter will only help, but it’s really about friends adopting Twitter.

Still, Twitter in its current form will be dominated by the over 25 crowd. Twitter offers something that adults crave more than teenagers: an audience. Facebook doesn’t fulfill this need as well as Twitter does, but the offset is that teenagers turn to Facebook to communicate with their friends.

There are two primary ways Twitter can bring young users in and fix the demographic skew:

- Grow so large that it’s impossible for teens to ignore – aka the peer pressure effect. “Wait, you didn’t hear about Paula Abdul? Oh, I guess that’s because you aren’t on Twitter.”

- Add features or a culture that provides new value for teenagers who primarily want to talk with friends.

Twitter needs to find better ways to communicate its benefits to a younger population while keeping up its stellar growth. Combine that with features – or 3rd party apps – that focus on friendship circles, and Twitter will soon see teenagers adopting Twitter in droves.