調查顯示Facebook已在青少年中失寵

Facebook is 'dead and buried' to older teenagers, an extensive European study has found, as the key age group moves on to Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp and Snapchat.

Researching the Facebook use of 16-18 year olds in eight EU countries, the Global Social Media Impact Study found that as parents and older users saturate Facebook, its younger users are shifting to alternative platforms.

"Facebook is not just on the slide - it is basically dead and buried," wrote Daniel Miller, lead anthropologist on the research team, who is professor of material culture of University College London.

"Mostly they feel embarrassed to even be associated with it. Where once parents worried about their children joining Facebook, the children now say it is their family that insists they stay there to post about their lives."

Teens do not care that alternative services are less functional and sophisticated, and they also unconcerned about how information about them is being used commercially or as part of surveillance practice by the security services, the research found.

"What appears to be the most seminal moment in a young person’s decision to leave Facebook was surely that dreaded day your mum sends you a friend request," wrote Miller.

"It is nothing new that young people care about style and status in relation to their peers, and Facebook is simply not cool anymore."

In part of the study's research with Italian Facebook users, 40% of users had never changed their privacy settings and 80% said they "were not concerned or did not care" if their personal data was available and accessed, either by an organisation or an individual.

Information that people choose to publish on Facebook has generally been through a psychological filtering process, researchers found - unlike conversations, photos and video shared through more private tools such as Skype, or on mobile apps.

"Most individuals try to present themselves online the way they think society is expecting them to," wrote contributing anthropologist Razvan Nicolescu on Thursday.

"It seems that social media works not towards change – of society, notions of individuality and connectedness, and so on – but rather as a conservative force that tends to strengthen the conventional social relations and to reify society as Italians enjoy and recognise it.

"The normativity of the online presence seems to be just one expression of this process."一項廣泛的歐洲研究發現，一些稍大些的青少年不再使用Facebook，轉而使用Twitter、圖片分享應用Instagram、即時通訊WhatsApp和閱後即焚照片應用Snapchat。

全球社交媒體的影響研究（Global Social Media Impact Study）調查了歐盟的八個國家中16-18歲的Facebook用戶，發現隨着父母和年長的用戶滲透到Facebook，年少的用戶們紛紛轉向其他社交平臺。

英國倫敦大學的物質文化教授丹尼爾·米勒帶領了一個人類文化學團隊實施了這個調查。他寫道：“Facebook不僅僅是每況愈下這麼簡單了——它基本上灰飛煙滅了。”

“他們甚至以與Facebook有關聯爲恥。家長曾經不願孩子上Facebook，而現在孩子們說，是家長堅持讓他們上網分享自己的生活。”

這項調查發現，雖然其他社交平臺功能不全、不完善，但是青少年們並不在意。他們也不擔心自己的信息被用於商業活動或是被情報機構監視。

米勒寫道：“看起來，年輕人摒棄臉譜網的最大原因無疑是看到母親給自己的好友發送交友請求。”

“這不是什麼新鮮事：年輕人希望與同齡人在風格地位上保持同步，而Facebook已不酷了。”

在這項調查的意大利Facebook用戶有關的部分中，40%的用戶從未更改隱私設置，80%的人稱自己“不擔心也不在乎”他們的個人信息是否會被組織或個人盜取。

調查發現，人們在Facebook上公開的信息通常經過心理過濾的過程。這不同於更爲私人工具，如Skype或手機應用上分享過的對話、圖片和視頻。

12月26日，參與調查的人類學家拉茲萬·尼克勒素寫道：“大部分人希望自己的網絡形象符合社會預期。”

“看起來社交媒體的工作並未改變，如社交、個性化和聯繫等等。但是就像意大利人想的那樣，它倒是一個加固傳統社會關係，是社會具象化的守恆力。”

“網絡活動的規範性是此過程的表現之一。”