Facebooks clout not waning among teenagers: Survey

New York: Despite threats from mobile messaging services, the social networking site Facebook is not going into history books, at least for now. Facebook remains the most popular social network among teen-agers of 13 to 17 years, according to a new Pew survey. Though such sites as Instagram and Snapchat increasingly appeal to teenagers, Facebook is still a "dominant force", the survey found.Among the more than 1,000 teenagerss surveyed, 71 percent said they use Facebook, while 41 percent said Facebook is the site they use the most frequently over all other social networks.

Instagram and Snapchat scored as the second and third most frequently used sites, respectively, CNET reported. Some surveys had concluded that Facebook's popularity among teenagers has dropped over the past few years. According to the new Pew survey, most teenagers spend their time on more than one social network.But among the 22 percent who still use only one site, 66 percent pick Facebook, 13 percent use Google+, 13 percent Instagram and 3 percent Snapchat.

Boys were more likely than girls to say they visit Facebook most often (45 percent of boys versus 36 percent of girls). Girls polled were more likely than boys to say the same for Instagram and Tumblr. Older teens from 15 to 17 years old were more likely than younger teens aged 13 to 14 to point to Facebook as their most used site (44 percent of older teens versus 35 percent of younger teens).

Younger teens were more keen on Instagram than were older teens. But that's not going to hurt Facebook as it has already acquired Instagram for one billion dollars in 2012. Pew also questioned teens about their number of Facebook friends. Among those polled, the typical teenager has 145 friends on the network.