Facebook losing teens

A recent survey indicated that over the past year the percent of teenagers saying that Facebook was the most important social networking sites to them dropped from 42% in 2012 to only 23% this year, according to a survey by Piper Jaffray, an investment bank and asset managing firm. See the chart here. One of the reasons for the decline in the popularity of Facebook among teens, according to a Pew Research Center publication, is that it has become a social burden. Twitter currently reigns supreme as 26% of teens consider it their most important social network. Some good news for Facebook is that Instagram, one of the companies Facebook owns, is gaining among teens and is tied with Facebook at 23% in the survey. Today, after a long period of denying and discounting these trends Chief Financial Officer of Facebook, David Ebersman admitted that Facebook was seeing a decrease in daily users among younger teens. David Ebersman was also quick to note that "We remain close to fully penetrated among teens in the U.S." Yes, that is a direct quote. I'd venture to say that weird phrasing like that isn't helping Facebook's case either. Jokes aside, an astounding 94% of teens still have Facebook profiles despite the decrease in teens considering it their most important social network. It seems that Facebook is not going anywhere anytime soon, but the trends among teens are going to become a big problem for Facebook if they hope to continue their dominance of social networking in the future.