Speculations about the declining use of Facebook among teenagers have gone around for some time. Facebook finally admitted that younger teens' daily use of the site has gone down.
Facebook is an online social media network which is a result of ingenuity of Harvard University students. Initially it was limited for college then high school students and later opened for people at least 13 years of age.
Until recently, youngsters in between ages 13 and 17 are now allowed to post publicly. The policy change occurred two weeks ago, allowing these youngsters to post anything visible to all users.
According to a company blog post, "Teens are among the savviest people using of social media, and whether it comes to civic engagement, activism, or their thoughts on a new movie, they want to be heard. While only a small fraction of teens using Facebook might choose to post publicly, this update now gives them the choice to share more broadly, just like on other social media services."
It seemed that Facebook has tried to gain influence on these youngsters but it doesn't seem to have mattered much. The share value of Facebook went up by 15 percent after its financial report for the quarter but because of the news about declining teens' usage of the site, the stocks plunged back.
David Ebersman, chief financial officer of Facebook, told change occurred two weeks ago, allowing these youngsters to post anything visible to all users. Mashable, "Youth usage among U.S. teens was stable overall from Q2 to Q3, but we did see a decrease in daily users partly among younger teens."
The specific age for what Ebersman termed as "younger teens" is not exactly known but it may be approximated within the range of 13 to 17.
Whichever age group Eberman is referring to, the statement is a subtle acknowledgement that the social networking site is having a tough time maintaining consumer retention within this market segment.
Most of young teenagers were said to be shifting to other networking sites such as Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat.
