If there wasn't all this youth worship in Silicon Valley, nobody would see this as a problem for Facebook. We have a lot more disposable income than teenagers do.
That's arguable. Most people I know with teenagers would say their kids have more influence on family spending than they do.
For me personally, years of barely scraping by have left me with anxiety and guilt anytime I spend money on frivolous things. My kids on the other hand seem to have no issue spending their allowance on movies, toys, and shitty little trinkets. I'm not sure how to instill a sense of frugality without letting them go hungry for a while.
Non-parent (I only rent them from friends and family) advice here: Charitable work with the poor. Anything that gets them interacting with the less fortunate on a personal level, not just abstract stories from Dad about it was like when he was a kid, but stories from the people living them right now. You don't feel bad about depriving your kids, they learn some empathy for people with different life experiences and how lucky they are to be born into the right family and last but not least, in the process you help to make the world a better place.
The only cash I got was from grandparents for birthday/christmas, or doing yard work. But my main hobby was reading, so I just went to the library and never did any yard work as I didn't need the money.
As a teenager it slightly irritated me, when I saw some of my friends whose parents gave them 20 euros a week or w/e- but now as an adult I live as frugally as one can live as an engineer in the bay area (I still eat out way too much, silly social pressure) and am glad my parents did it that way.
I remember my dad making various attempts to teach me to be careful with money when i was a kid. It was all water off a duck's back, because it was obvious to both of us that it was just a game. Then i went to university and had a rigidly fixed amount of student loan to live off. And hey presto, i learned how not to spend money.
I don't have any teenagers, but I spend way more money as a young adult than I ever did as a kid. Kids spend money on movies and toys and trinkets, but grownups buy cars, handbags, computers, meals at expensive restaurants, etc.
Because, come to think of it, the moment my parents joined Facebook, I immediately had to start regulating what I posted too. And I'm in my middle 30s!
Most marketing research would disagree with you, not strictly on available disposable income, we (24-35 year olds) are not nearly as valuable as teens.
Teens are
- More susceptible to viral/video/visual/interactive marketing
- More Impulsive
- More trendy (their friends have it, they must)
- Are one of the best ways to separate a discerning parent from their money
- Less Discerning.
- More Naive
- Have a longer lifetime value
I wonder if FB had implemented a feature like G+'s circles, if this wouldn't be an issue.
Snapchat? Recipient views picture once, and if they try to save it you know.