Teens, Facebook, and Ministry
Facebook is still an important social network for teens, but their use of Facebook, (as well as Google+ and Twitter) has declined over the past few years according to a recently released report by investment bank Piper Jaffray.
Bernhard Warner writes in an article on Bloomberg Businessweek (April 11, 2013):
According to Piper Jaffray (PJC), while Facebook and YouTube are still considered the most important social media destination for teens, their popularity among this fickle demographic has fallen precipitously since this time last year… (The cold-shoulder treatment may be because so many parents and grannies seem, creepily, to be all over Facebook these days.)
Businesses are concerned about teen trends because teens are a significant segment of the consumer market. Marketers want to get their messages to teens, get their feedback and perhaps come up with something that will “catch on” with them.
What about those in ministry? How are we paying attention to teen preferences and trends in our communities? Are we engaging them on social networks? They are an important segment of our Church community. How are we reaching them?
A small percentage of teens are active in Church activities. According to Pew research 95% of teens (12-17) are online. To be sure, they want to hangout with their friends in person, in fact, many say that they prefer that, but they also want to stay connected when they can’t be together.
For more data on teens and technology check out the Pew Internet: Teens.
The infographic below gives us some insight into teens and social media. Perhaps it will re-energize us to be more creative in using a variety of methods to reach out to teens. Click on the graphic to enlarge it.
How do you connect with the teens in your life? How do you feel about that? How do you think they feel about it?
Comments (2)
Dawn Rusinko
May 7, 2013 at 7:53 am
I find that most teens and young adults no longer use facebook and twitter and have opted for instagram
Zak Jester
May 8, 2013 at 3:13 pm
Teens don’t want to use Facebook to set up meetings with their Youth Minister. It was essentially a place to hang out with friends when you couldn’t physically hang out with friends. Because of how commercialized it became– too many ads, businesses using it as advertisement, ‘trendy’ youth ministers and teachers using it as more than a hang out space– it has declined in popularity in favor of other sites, like instagram, pinterest, and tumblr, which have for now evaded wide-spread adult infiltration.
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