I have set up a forum in the past few months and it's so hard to find young people to participate.
They may be interested in doing it but the UX seem so out of place for most of them that they won't even try. Also, the missing "app/notifications" makes them forget quickly that it exists and they may never come back.
I've noticed that everything that allows interaction between users is social media for the younger generation. They have no notion of forum, chat app or... social media organized like facebook or tiktok.
I think they're aiming at the wrong market. If my Facebook feed is anything to go by teenagers absolutely love new chat applications, but the reason they love them is because their friends introduce them. Although yes the requirement to register is a barrier to entry, it's a good one, it makes your users invested in pushing their friends into using it. You took away the element that makes these applications successful. Aim it at teenagers, provide an incentive to use it and then drop the sms thing, then you'll take off (if you're lucky!)
Correct. Their UX is a barrier to entry to older folks to keep the user base young (<25).
Anecdotal evidence: I know numerous people over 25 who have installed snapchat once and even twice (at an attempt to use it again) only to uninstall it after being unable to figure out how to use it. But the recent college grads and younger all get it.
I don't think they have the personality to bring users over 22 to the site. The super-hip parties and don't-give-a-shit attitude works great for attracting pop-culture based young-ins but I feel those of us a bit less enticed by flash won't find a place there.
That's a really good point. And a case in point - I remember when I was 12, joining forums, there was always a prompt asking me if I was over the age of 13. Obviously I clicked yes and registered anyway!
But part of the danger is the ubiquity of it I think. Every teenager has social media, so there's this massive peer-pressure. If you don't have it, you get picked on. I wonder if banning it would reduce the numbers at least enough to reduce this effect.
I'm definitely not saying this is some silver bullet... But I think we have to do something, and maybe this is a reasonable starting point.
I wish I were there for all that. I'm still a teen, but I like to hearken to older times. I voluntarily chose not to join any social media, because I can see how commercialized it is. In a world were smartphones and social media are dominant, the world seems like glass, where everyone can see everyone, and everyone's competing to be seen. I hate and reject such ideas, becuase they make daily interaction something of a contest. "How many likes can I get for this tweet?" and other such things turn what normally would be conversation into someone shouting at the top of a tower to see how many people shout in agreement. Forums, largely aren't that way. I've been a part of many different forums in my life, and I can see that they fostered conversation and community. It's sad to see them go the way of the dinosaur in favor of commercialized, mobile, "reactive" "apps".
Do you imply that teens/young adults don't care about usability? Or that they don't have the attention span to read comments and just want to endlessly scroll through crap?
Kids aren't going to converge on a platform their parents use. End of story. That's why FB was so 'in' when it first started. literally no one over 21.
Young people use social apps, they don't read articles in mobile apps just like no one does that. The social apps are just a replacement for talking on the phone and text messaging, it's not like they are doing it instead of things they used to do on the web.
In the UK its certainly not popular with the late 20's crowd. There are still some people hanging on in there but most people seem to have (thankfully) given up on it for anything other than messages and the occasional event.
They may be interested in doing it but the UX seem so out of place for most of them that they won't even try. Also, the missing "app/notifications" makes them forget quickly that it exists and they may never come back.
reply