Teens today prefer Facebook to traditional blogging and Twitter, a new study found.

The study, conducted by the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project, showed a decline in the number of teens who say they blog, from 28 percent in 2006 to 18 percent in 2009, when the study was conducted.

Just 52 percent comment on their friends' blogs, versus 76 percent three years ago. Meanwhile, adult blog use is steadily increasing, with one in 10 online adults now maintaining a blog.

Out of all the data, we think in some ways it's most surprising to see a decline in blogging, says Pew researcher Amanda Lenhart, who co-wrote the report, Social Media and Mobile Internet Use Among Teens and Young Adults.

The report shows data found from two telephone surveys in September, one that focused on teens ages 12-17 and a second survey of adults 18 and older.

What we think is really going on here — why young people aren't doing blogs anymore — is that there's been a move from MySpace, which put blogging front and center, to Facebook, which doesn't have that, Lenhart says.

According to the study, 73 percent of teens who were online used social networking sites.

The study also found the sites to be less sticky, with fewer participating heavily.

Even with teens' continued enthusiasm for social networking, recent changes in their communication patterns on the sites suggest they are somewhat less tethered to their profiles, the study found.

Teens have remained steady or even shown a slight decline in their likelihood of using social network sites to connect with friends. A bit more than a third (37%) of social network-using teens said they sent messages to friends every day through the social sites, a drop from the 42% of such teens who said they did so in February of 2008. Additionally, fewer teens are sending bulletins or group messages or sending private messages to friends from within social network sites.

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