Parents are flocking to Snapchat
First parents invaded Facebook. Now they're coming for Snapchat.
While Snapchat's popularity with teens and 20-somethings is still strong, people 35 and older are flocking to the ephemeral social network too.
A new report from comScore, which was highlighted in The Wall Street Journal Tuesday, says that 14% of Snapchat users in the US are now over the age of 35, which is up from just 2% three years ago.
Snapchat's own usage statistics skew even more towards an older demographic.
The company told Tech Insider last week that 17% of its users in the US are over 35. Its app has 150 million daily users globally, 80% of which are between the ages of 13 and 34.
I've seen the phenomenon of parents joining Snapchat first hand. Both my mom and mother-in-law started regularly using Snapchat in the past month.
Clearly I'm not alone:
Snapchat is widely considered to be more confusing than other social networks, but that hasn't managed to stop my mom from posting compilations of photos and videos (the app calls them "Stories") with goofy selfie filters and emojis. She makes it look effortless.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg famously declared that "coolness is done for us" in 2013. That was when teens were starting to use Facebook less, and now they've all but abandoned sharing on Facebook for newer apps like Snapchat.
Could Snapchat become uncool one day too? Maybe. But for now, Snapchat doesn't seem to be worried about older people killing its cool factor. Here's how a company spokeswoman explained it to The Wall Street Journal:
"Our community enjoys having their parents on Snapchat because it's a really fast and fun way to communicate. We don't have the public likes and comments that often make for awkward moments on traditional social media. It's never been an issue."