Teens aged 12–17 spend a lot of time on Facebook, but Twitter is less popular among them.

According to the Pew Internet Project, teens overall write much less in their blogs than they used to.

Twitter, however, has also become more popular, especially among high school senior girls (17–18). These data come from two telephone surveys conducted in September 2009 in the USA. The first surveyed teens aged 12–17, the second young adults over 18.

It turned out that interest in blogging fell by 50% in both groups compared to 2006, when 28% of 18–29 year olds and teens wrote in blogs. By autumn 2009 the figure was 15% of those over 18 and 14% of teens. The numbers fell very rapidly, especially considering that over the same period the share of users over 30 with personal blogs grew from 7% to 11%. Researchers believe blogger numbers dropped due to user migration from MySpace (where the user blog played a significant role) to Facebook, where blogs aren’t as important. It turned out only 8% of internet-using teens had used Twitter even once. Especially surprising since teens traditionally are first to adopt any new internet service.

Today’s teens may start using Twitter and actively blog as they move into the next age category. Blogging, unlike instant-messenger communication, involves expressing more serious ideas and formulations than friendly Facebook chats.