Snapchat usage soars, attracting parents and weirding out teens
When parents make it to Snapchat, so do marketers — or is it the other way around? The Wall Street Journal shares new data about the popularity of the social network, indicating that it’s starting to creep into the older generation.
Teens are finding the move quite “bizarre.” Alas, that’s exactly what’s happening, as the Wall Street Journal chart below indicates:
comScore’s reporting also supports this shift into a new demographic. According to comScore, 38% of US smartphone users ages 25-34 are using Snapchat; 14% are 35 and older.
Is Snapchat following the same trending that attracted parents onto the social networks their children are, similarly to how Facebook built steam? Perhaps. But as the WSJ article states, while some have claimed that parents scare their kids off of Facebook, such may not be the case on Snapchat, where the communications are a little more private. The privacy component of Snapchat is more alluring and would potentially keep the kids at bay.
Still, it’s no surprise that Snapchat is attracting the parents and marketers alike. The WSJ report says that parents are checking on their kids and older adults are looking to self-promote–in one case, a 60-year-old woman is on Snapchat to market her blog.
How receptive are the kids to their parents following them on social media? Not so much. “It’s weird,” an eighteen year old was quoted as saying as his 56-year-old mother joined him to post cat photos.
That’s not stopping the parents. As more aim to figure out what their kids are doing online, more will likely sign up, and Snapchat growth will continue among the older generation.
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