Facebook is starting to see a lot less face time.
About 23 percent of 8,650 teenagers surveyed in Piper Jaffray’s 26th Semi-Annual “Taking Stock with Teens” Market Research Project cited Facebook as the most important social media platform, down from 42 percent the year before.
Twitter was cited as the most important.
But Bruce Floyd, UF’s social media specialist, said he’s skeptical about the research provided in the study and needed to examine it before agreeing with the trend.
“What (teenagers) say they like is different from what they use,” he said.
Anna Cesarotti, a 19-year-old UF sociology and sustainability studies sophomore, said she hasn’t had a Facebook account for more than a year.
“I was overwhelmed by Facebook,” she said.
Cesarotti said she felt keeping up with Facebook was too much like maintenance, so she choose to delete her account before starting college.
Although the study shows teen Facebook users are down, some UF students still think there is a need for it to stay connected on campus.
Lizbeth Ramos, an 18-year-old UF exploratory freshman, said she recently reactivated her Facebook after not having one for almost three years because she felt it was necessary for college.
“Everything is done through Facebook,” she said.
Ramos said most of the organizations at UF use Facebook to advertise events, meetings and other information. Without it, she wouldn’t be able to stay up to date.
“I don’t want it to socialize. I want it for school purposes,” she said.
A version of this story ran on page 3 on 10/28/2013 under the headline "Teenagers more interested in Twitter than Facebook, study says"
