Young people are deserting social media sites such as Facebook in a bid to ditch online relationships with their parents, a new report has revealed.
Research showed a third of younger internet users admitted deleting social media accounts because their parents had started to use the same site.
The phenomenon involves more established social media sites such as Facebook – which was launched publicly in 2006 – being dropped by the young in favour of more recent competitors.
The Halifax Digital Home Index found 32 per cent of 16- to 34-year-olds admitted deleting their own Facebook account, while 33 per cent said they had deleted or blocked a family member.
One in 10 younger people confessed they had switched to social media channels where their activities and comments cannot be seen by their family, such as Twitter, the micro-blogging site, or Snapchat and Instagram, the photograph-sharing apps.
The poll, which surveyed more than 2,000 people about their online habits, indicated the exodus from more established sites was being driven by wider use of smartphones and tablet computers.
Just 9 per cent of over-55s owned a smartphone in 2012, according to Ofcom figures.
But today they are catching up with their children and grandchildren, with 52 per cent owning a smartphone compared with 85 per cent of younger people.
For tablet computers the divide is even more narrow, with the 49 per cent of older people using the machines compared with 59 per cent of the younger generation.
More than half (59 per cent) of older people have a Facebook account, with 23 per cent signing up in the last three years, while 32 per cent use Skype, the video-calling service, and 17 per cent have the WhatsApp messenger on their ’phones.
Lord Knight of Weymouth, chairman of the Tinder Foundation, a digital technology social enterprise, said: "The older generation tend to use new devices and apps more where there is a direct need, for instance parents using Skype to contact family far away.
"However the younger generation is often ahead, adopting newer social media platforms to remain under the radar of their parents."
The survey also showed huge variations in the way different generations use smartphones.
One in five younger people admitted using their devices during family dinners compared with just 1 per cent of older people, while a quarter of youngsters used their mobiles to call a family member who was in the same house compared with 5 per cent of the older generation.
Source: Telegraph.co.uk
