We know teens are leaving Facebook, but where are they going? According to experts, they’re headed to social networks that don’t leave permanent tracks.
Snapchat, the app that allows people to take and send photos that self-destruct, is only the most famous example, but there are others. Blink erases text messages. Skim does that program one better by deleting the message as you read it. Whisper promises that whatever you send through its own network never, ever will be traced back to you. Those burgeoning social networks belie the idea that teens don’t care about privacy—as does a recent report released by the Intelligence Group.
According to the study, 76 percent of those classified as Post-millennials thought most folks shared too much online, and 55 percent say they don’t like things to last forever on the Internet. About 18 percent of teens say they share a lot about themselves online, down from 24 percent the previous year.
Jamie Gutfreund, chief strategy officer for the Intelligence Group says kids born in the past 10 years “have no control over the amount of information that’s available about them online. The younger they are, the more aware they are of the value of their information.” (Time)
Paul Asay has covered religion for The Washington Post, Christianity Today, Beliefnet.com and The (Colorado Springs) Gazette. He writes about culture for Plugged In and wrote the Batman book God on the Streets of Gotham (Tyndale). He lives in Colorado Springs with wife Wendy and his two children. Follow him on Twitter.