Facebook has the most friends at WMS

Watertown Splash poll of students shows diverse use of social networks

Sergio Guzman and Eric Furtado

Most of the Watertown Middle School students who have social network accounts said they use it “because it’s fun.” Others said they have it to “Keep in touch with family and friends.” A typical response from people that don’t use social networks was “My parents won’t let me.” Over the fall, WMS students were polled by the Watertown Splash to find out who is using what. The responses were used in this story, and the Watertown Splash would like to say thank you for your cooperation while taking these surveys.

For eighth-graders, Facebook had the most users (75), while Myspace had total of one user. Twitter had 12 users (the most in all grades), while Skype had 17 users. The total number of eighth-graders who responded to the poll that don’t use a social network was 19.

“I use Facebook and ooVoo because it’s a way to communicate with friends other than talking to them,’’ said Nina, an eighth-grader.

Rebecca, another eighth-grader, said, “I use ooVoo because it’s another way to talk to my friends other then talking on the phone or in person.’’

For seventh grade, the results received weren’t as serious, so they couldn’t be counted in the grand total.

In sixth grade, Facebook had 83 users while Myspace had a surprising total of two users. Skype had 41 users while Twitter had 39.

From these results, we can tell that Watertown Middle School is pretty diverse in its social networks, except for Myspace. Myspace has developed a bad reputation with kids and adults alike. This is the main reason very few students have a Myspace account. Twitter was the second lowest. We believe that the reason is that you can’t talk to your friends.

Skype was the second highest in all grades, and the reason is that you can video chat with your friends.

Facebook has the most users and it has merged with all the students. Many students at Watertown Middle School have a Facebook account.

–Dec. 3, 2010–