Teens Engage More with Fewer Photos: Temporal and Comparative Analysis on Behaviors in Instagram
Research has suggested that teens are more active and engaged than adults on social media. Most of such observations, however, have been made through the analysis of limited ethnographic or cross sectional data. Using a temporally extended, large scale dataset and comparative analyses to remedy this shortcoming, we examined how and why the age difference in the behaviors of users in Instagram might have occurred through the lenses of social cognition, developmental psychology, and human computer interaction. We proposed two hypotheses teens as digital natives and the need for social interactions as the theoretical framework for understanding the factors that help explain the behavioral differences. Our computational analysis identified the following novel findings: (1) teens post fewer photos than adults; (2) teens remove more photos based on the number of Likes the photos received; and (3) teens have less diverse photo content. Our analysis was also able to confirm prior ethnographic accounts that teens are more engaged in Liking and commenting, and express their emotions and social interests more than adults. We discussed theoretical and practical interpretations and implications as well as future research directions from the results. Our datasets are available at: https:/goo.gl/LqTYNv
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