Humans are programmed by default to be socially active. That doesn’t mean that all of us are active, some are more active than others especially when it comes to teenagers. More than 95% of teenagers own one or more phones. Gone are the days when Facebook was the number one social media site. Teenagers now use WhatsApp to text, Instagram to send photos, Snapchat to share casual moments, and Twitter to check their daily feeds.
It may look complicated to you but teens love the variety all these apps provide. Young people love to share real-time photos and videos with their friends. Nowadays, young adults are forming relationships through social media which are growing to become life commitments. Social media has become an integral part of peoples’ lives which is shaping how we interact with each other. There are no more handshakes or face-to-face conversations, everything is done through text or video chats.
Here is a list of some of the most popular social media apps used by teenagers.
Facebook may be the oldest social app in the world but it’s still the largest with a 2.3 billion monthly active users. Apart from networking with family and friends, you can use this platform to sell online and promote your brand or business using Facebook paid advertising. Lots of teenagers use Facebook to shop and share photos and videos with their friends.
Instagram is a unique social media platform that mainly focuses on the sharing of photos and videos. With over 800 million active users 63% are teens from 13-17 years. Instagram helps you to capture many life moments on video or photos using your phone or camera and turn it into a work of art using multiple filters to give them a high-quality finish. People like to follow popular brands, celebrities or other people who have many followers and likes. You can check out this Instagram likes app to learn more about how to increase your follower numbers.
You can post short messages or tweets on Twitter that contain a maximum of 280 characters to send to your followers. Twitter has over 330 million active users with 42% being teens ages 15-17 being active users. Since online shopping is a common trend, Twitter is a great platform to promote your brand and also shop. Twitter is a social network that provides you with real-time news and a chance to connect with celebrities and high profile individuals. Teenagers are mostly attracted to the multimedia visual features that are found in the articles, photos, and videos posted.
Telegram
Telegram is a unique texting app that is void of advertisements. All Telegram calls and texts are encrypted and you can upload any file be it image or video files. You can create a secret chat room and set a timer to delete all the messages after some time. A single group message can be sent to up to 5,000 family and friends.
WhatsApp allows users to send audio messages, text messages, videos, and photos to each other or a group of people without any charges. WhatsApp has over 1 million active users and was acquired by Facebook in 2014 however, it’s an independent entity. Once you sign up all your contacts using WhatsApp are automatically connected to you. You can also make videos calls and form groups to communicate and share.
WeChat is similar to WhatsApp in that you can send messages and make calls. It has over 697 million active users developed in Tencent China and can be used with QQ. WeChat enables you to communicate and connect with anybody.
Snapchat
Snapchat is a texting app that uses images and photographic filters. It gives you access to live stories and news happening around the world. Teenagers love to spend time on Snapchat texting and snapping with their friends. Everything that is posted on Snapchat can only be viewed for only 24 hours.
Tumblr
Tumblr is a popular blogging platform with over 555 million active users owned by Yahoo since 2013. Tumblr is similar to Snapchat and Instagram where most of the content is visual. Teenagers love Tumblr and would prefer it to Facebook because of its visual content which includes videos, GIF, and photos. You can also post, write short blogs with multimedia.
Skype
Skype is a communication platform owned by Microsoft with over 300 million active users. It enables you to communicate with people using text messaging, video calls using a webcam, and voice calls. Teenagers like talking to their friends at any time and with Skype, they can talk to more than one friend on one video call. The best part is that Skype-to-Skype calls are free so you can also use Skype to conduct group conference calls with anyone from anywhere around the world using the internet.
Kik
Kik is similar to WhatsApp in that it’s popular among teenagers who use it to chat with their friends instead of using SMS texting. You only need to have a username instead of a phone number to start chatting. Kik has a chat interface that allows you to communicate with other people from all over the world.
Google +
Google + is a social networking platform with over 300 million active users owned by Google. You can use it to communicate and stay in touch with people through sharing videos, messages, links to useful websites, photos, etc. It has Hangouts that facilitates video conferencing and Google + business pages to help you promote and market your products and services.
Tik Tok
Tik Tok is a social media platform where users share videos and perform to posted songs. Teenagers love to lip-synch famous songs and you will find original songs posted and videos of people singing their own composition.
Conclusion
Social media is here to stay and it’s no secret that teenagers like to spend most of their time texting or sharing videos and photos with their friends. The above list of popular social media platforms used by teenagers is just a few of the many apps out there.
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