New research shows that Generation Z favors anonymous or self-destructing social media over  more permanent and identifiable identities on Facebook or Twitter, and they’re voting with their feet; some studies estimate that over 11 million young people have left Facebook since 2011. So before we know it, our ubiquitous digital footprints may look like more like dinosaur tracks.

The Cassandra Report, released by  the Intelligence Group, a consumer insight and research company, found that 55% of post-millennial respondents said they don’t like things that last forever online, and another 55% said they’d rather be anonymous than vocal. And 76% said they thought other people shared too much.

The 2013 Cassandra report found that 18% of teens say they share a lot about themselves online, down from 24% in the 2012 report.

This is encouraging news. The next step is to carefully chose the people that “follow” them online. Many teens add followers without having any idea who they are. Last year’s arrest of a local baseball coach is a cautionary tale. The high school coach impersonated a woman online was able to obtain nude photos and videos from more than 100 male students from his school. We need to work towards reducing our children’s exposure to sexual predators.

http://techland.time.com/2014/01/17/oversharenting-backlash-gen-zs-quest-for-online-anonymity/