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‘Less is more’ for mobile teens

April 24, 2013 By Anne 3 Comments

Wired speculates that, because some Asian texting apps – such as LINE, WeChat, Gangnam Style and Kakaotalk – have “slick user interfaces that focus on simplicity and visually pleasing graphics,” these fast-growing apps will soon cross the Pacific, and at least one of them will take off in the US too. “Today, less is more.” But Wired seems to contradict itself a bit, saying they’re also adding features rather than staying spare: “Although they started as pure messaging apps, they’ve increasingly added features to become full social networks.”

I buy the “less is more” speculation, where teens are concerned, but it’s a blend of less-is-more (social-networking-LITE) and diversification. I think more and more people, led by younger people, are using a passel of simple apps for simple use cases – e.g., perishable photo-sharing (as in Snapchat, which is the very definition of social networking LITE) and photo-socializing (as in Instagram, illustrating the new meaning of “a picture’s worth a thousand words”). Apps need to stay spare and utilitarian because that makes them more versatile and adaptable. There are other uses for Instagram, for example, such as marketing or displaying a collective of favorite things or creations (and those are well-established uses now). Teens, whether as individuals or groups, like to make apps and services their own. Simplicity and utility help them do that. It’ll be fun to see, not what the next hot app will be, but what the next teen-developed use case will be. It won’t necessarily be the use case envisioned by an app’s developers or a service’s founders, and it’s getting harder for adult analysts to predict! [BTW, Kik Messenger is No. 1 with teen in Australia, I learned when in Sydney last month, and WhatsApp seems to be No. 1 in the world, at least according to the Android app store download numbers at Google play.]

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Filed Under: mobile, Social Media Tagged With: Android, apps, cellphones, Google Play, iOS, KakaoTalk, Kik Messenger, LINE, smartphones, teens, WhatsApp, youth

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  1. App ambition: Fun media-sharing for small social circles, planet-wide - NetFamilyNews.org | NetFamilyNews.org says:
    February 28, 2014 at 5:06 pm

    […] Simplicity’s appeal: “Less is more for mobile teens” […]

    Reply
  2. Kids, Instagram & its new feature 'Photos of You' | NetFamilyNews.org says:
    May 3, 2013 at 3:32 pm

    […] “Less is more for mobile teens” […]

    Reply
  3. ‘Less is more’ for mobile teens says:
    April 24, 2013 at 2:51 pm

    […] Wired speculates that, because some Asian texting apps – such as LINE, WeChat, Gangnam Style and Kakaotalk – have “slick Source: Net Family News […]

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Our (DIGITAL) PARENTING BASICS: Safety + Social
NAMLE, the National Association for Media Literacy Education
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Center for Democracy & Technology
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Childnet International
Committee for Children
Congressional Internet Caucus Academy
ConnectSafely.org
Control Shift: a pivotal book for Internet safety
Crimes Against Children Research Center
Crisis Textline
Cyber Civil Rights Initiative's Revenge Porn Crisis Line
Cyberwise.org
danah boyd's blog and book about networked youth
Disconnected, Carrie James's book on digital ethics
FOSI.org's Good Digital Parenting
The research of Global Kids Online
The Good Project at Harvard's School of Education
If you watch nothing else: "Parenting in a Digital Age" TED Talk by Prof. Sonia Livingstone
The International Bullying Prevention Association
Let Grow Foundation
Making Caring Common
Raising Digital Natives, author Devorah Heitner's site
Renee Hobbs at the Media Education Lab
MediaSmarts.ca
The New Media Literacies
Report of the Aspen Task Force on Learning & the Internet and our guide to Creating Trusted Learning Environments
The Ruler Approach to social-emotional learning (Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence)
Sources of Strength
"Young & Online: Perspectives on life in a digital age" from young people in 26 countries (via UNICEF)
"Youth Safety on a Living Internet": 2010 report of the Online Safety & Technology Working Group (and my post about it)

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