Facebook is old news.
If life were a Facebook newsfeed, I’m not even confident that Facebook itself would be on it. Platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr and Snapchat have taken the consumer’s interest and are quickly replacing Facebook.
Perhaps it became “uncool” the day that we got a friend request from our parents. I know that I for one vacillated back and forth between confirming and denying my parents’ requests.
Mary Erickson, adjunct instructor at the University of Oregon, asked her students in her Mass Media and Society class if they still participated in Facebook regularly.
“A lot of people are still on Facebook, but more people are dropping it because their parents are online,” Erickson said. “It is definitely on the decline with the younger age bracket.”
For some, Facebook might have been a secret world where your parents weren’t “all up in your business.” Now, they may be even going so far as to “liking” your “business.”
In a Mashable post titled “I’m 13 and None of My Friends Use Facebook,” Ruby Karp shares that having parents on the site can be invasive and ruin the fun.
“All of our parents and parents’ friends have Facebook. It’s not just the fact that I occasionally get wall posts like, ‘Hello sweetie pie!’ But my friends post photos that get me in trouble with those parents.”
Even the company’s CFO David Ebersman revealed that the usage among young teens is in the process of declining.
It’s not just your photos may get you in trouble with your parents. People are being stingier with what they post on their profiles because many employers will search a job candidate on Facebook prior to an interview. No one wants their potential bosses and coworkers catching a glimpse of photos from their college days.
It is important to try to keep a “clean” profile, especially when you’re friends with your grandparents, aunts, uncles and parents.
The social media site seems to be used often for business or school purposes. Its group feature is really helpful for coordinating large groups of people. Creating events on Facebook is helpful in that respect, too. Forgot to get your Spanish partner’s cell phone number before going home to work on a big project? Simply search them on the website and shoot them a message.
Facebook was such a big hit when it first launched because it was one of the first of its kind. The concept of being able to see what all of your friends were doing or what they were saying was a new one, and attracted just about everyone. The film “The Social Network” told the story of the company’s humble beginnings at Harvard University.
“Our society is so consumed by social media because it is an easier way to connect with people,” Erickson said. “I’m in a place in life where a lot of people in my age group are on Facebook because the nature of our schedules don’t always allow for socializing in person.”
Facebook is still alive and well. However, the plethora of social media outlets and devices are causing the younger age brackets to deviate from their once beloved Facebook.
Another reason why other social media platforms are seemingly more appealing is the ability to not be tied to their actual identity. Snapchat and Instagram, for example, do not require a person to reveal their true identity.
USC Annenberg Center for the Digital Future and Bovitz Inc. released a survey in February 2013 which concluded that about one-third of the site’s users will eventually stop using the service within five years.
Facebook is still the top social media site in the world, but it just has more competition and is less popular among the younger crowd.