Use of social networks and communication apps among adolescents in Slovenia

Knowing which social networks and apps are used by teenagers makes it easier to prepare for any possible incidents. Generally, Slovenian teenagers use the same social networks and apps as their peers in Europe, but there are some important differences.

Date 2018-05-17 Author Slovenian Safer Internet Centre Section awareness

Until recently, there were no surveys on the use of social networks among young people in Slovenia. But youth trainers at Slovenia's Awareness Centre, Safe.si, are constantly working with primary and secondary school students and talking with them about the social networks, websites and apps that they use. Based on their reports, we have evaluated the use of social networks in Slovenia, which provides an orientation for understanding the situation. The presented data represents the period from September 2017 to January 2018.

The widest circle of users
Most Slovenian teens use YouTube and Gmail: they watch vlogs and other videos on YouTube; they have Gmail accounts mostly because they need an email address to sign up for different services. Snapchat is certainly one of the most widely used applications; possibly even the most used. Instagram and Facebook Messenger are on the same level. Viber is also very popular, but teens over the age of 15 are slowly abandoning it.

A medium-sized circle of users
Over a year and a half ago, Facebook was one of the most used social networks but young people have drifted away from it. They still have their own profiles, but either don't use them or use them to a very limited extent. One of the reasons is that their parents have become very intense Facebook users.

Steam, a platform for the purchase of video games with social network elements, is very popular and is mainly used by video game enthusiasts. The same applies to Discord. Skype is used primarily to communicate with relatives. Musical.ly is more popular among girls. Many follow Tumblr and Reddit. Sarahah is also getting more popular, where, unfortunately, a lot of cyberbullying happens. WhatsApp has a medium-sized circle of users, which is a significant deviation compared to some other European countries, where WhatsApp is typically the most popular messaging app.

A small circle of users
A small circle of users have Twitter, Omegle, Kik, Twitch, ASKfm and Telegram. A few years ago, ASKfm had many users and was somehow as popular as Snapchat and Instagram are today, but young people have totally abandoned it. Nowadays older teens know about it, but they do not use it. Among younger teens, a large proportion do not even know about ASKfm. Omegle, as a website for talking to strangers, has never had a wide circle of users. When its use was at its peak in Slovenia, it had a medium-sized circle of users only.

Find out more about the work of the Slovenian Safer Internet Centre (SIC), including its awareness raising, helpline, hotline and youth participation services.

Visit the Better Internet for Kids (BIK) Guide to online services for information on a whole range of popular apps and platforms.

Related news