Researchers at the Penn State University have analyzed people's behaviors in Instagram with some very interesting findings. The 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, in the paper, the researchers 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.

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 that the photos received; and (3) teens have less diverse photo content.

The 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.