Teen Facebook Users are a Bunch of Liars
Teen Facebook Users are a Bunch of Liars
Posted 02/21/2011 at 9:40am
| by Paul Lilly
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The not-so-shocking study of the day comes from Telstra, a telecommunications and information services company in Australia. No need to brace yourself for this one, but according to Telstra's research, Generation Y teens often user their smartphone apps in conjunction with social networking sites in order to boost their social cred. For example, a third of Gen Ys who participated in the survey admitted to downloading iPhone apps simply to appear cool.
Teens are liars, too. The study also revealed that many Gen Ys have no qualms about claiming Facebook or Twitter posts that are not their own if they think doing so will boost their social standing. They also fib about where they are.
"There are tricks to appearing cooler on a mobile than you really are. My biggest crime would be checking into a gig when I am actually buying chips from the shop next door," admitted Josh Earl, an admitted social networking addict.
Earl isn't alone in his social networking shenanigans. Some 70 percent of the Gen Y crowd said they believe their friends use Facebook Places and status updates to appear cooler than they are, while 44 percent admitted to doing as much.
More stats here.
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ShyLinuxGuy
February 21, 2011 at 7:42pm
Because I'm a senior in high school, I can confirm that teenagers like to exaggerate, at the least. When I did have a Facebook (and didn't realize it was a waste of time) I noticed what seemed like exaggeration at the least on many people's pages. I also notice that we teenagers (for the most part) go to the *extreme* with clothes, gadgets, even cars (you'd be surprised--or maybe not--that some kids pour $10,000 worth of mods into a sub-$1000 car). Also, the funny thing is, I've noticed that all layers of the socioeconomic hierarchy (from lower class to upper class and everything in between) wear Aeropostale, have iPods (and maybe other Apple products). Credit card-happy parents is my first guess.
I'm from what you would call from a middle-class family. I can afford an iPod and maybe a closet full of American Eagle if I really wanted it (I have a few "name-brand" shirts and pants), but the truth is, I'm fine with a cheaper (but just as capable) MP3 player and clothes mostly from stores like Target, Kmart and Marshall's. It really doesn't make sense to buy something just to impress other people or protray something I'm not (typical Californian-ish dude/chick is my impression).
vistageek
February 21, 2011 at 12:38pm
Let's just start with the fact that they own an iPhone to be cool...
I Jedi
February 21, 2011 at 1:17pm
Let's not forget the tens of thousands of students, who choose to buy a Macbook over a Windows-based laptop, that can do the same thing for less, if not more.
Corsair512
August 24, 2011 at 9:46am
Yeah, I recently got into it with my future brother-in-law over this very reason. He recently graduated high school and asked me for advice on a good laptop for college that can potentially last for 4 years and cost around $800. Of corse, his friends and girlfriend at the time are all "Go MAC, you won't go back!" and all this other bs about how cool they are. I told him the price point and hardware vs price, and what a lot of things the MAC won't be able to do any better then a PC. Even showed him the ASUS I bought my fiance on how thin, shiney and macbookish it looked.
Needless the say, the coolness factor in, and he droped $1500 on a MACBOOK with less CPU power, Ram, an intergerated GPU and other crap when I paid $700 for more stuff in said laptop for my fiance, plus this laptop I'm using now from Asus' Republic of Gamers line for $1000.
Yeah, his mommy wasn't happy I called him a tool.
Ghok
February 21, 2011 at 6:24pm
To be fair, if I didn't know anything about computers or only used one to surf the net, I'd probably buy a Macbook too.
But yes, there is certainly a cool factor involved with Macs. It is somehow both mainstream and contrarian to use a Mac. Good marketing there Apple, I don't know how you do it.
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