The powerhouse that is Facebook could soon head toward the networking junkyard wherein lays the remnants of once-popular platforms like MySpace and AOL messenger.
A study throughout eight European countries over fifteen months discovered that Facebook is more than declining in popularity, it’s jumping off the cyber cliff, and the platform’s fastest growing audience, parents, is to blame.
Simply put, anything a parent uses, shares or utilizes with their teen is no longer cool. Teens want distance from the figures they feel the need to break free from, and adding to their repulsion is their parents desire to stay connected with family through the site. In short, Facebook is no longer cool since the most embarrassing people ever, parents, are using it. No child wants their mom “liking” a picture of them on spring break.
Instead teens are moving onto newer sites and programs that, though less streamlined, their parents haven’t yet figured out or adopted. WhatsApp for messaging, Twitter for larger audiences, Instagram for photos and Snapchat for a more “destructive” form of media sharing. The clincher for causing these Europeans the abandon the nearly decade old site? “That dreaded day your mum sends you a friend request,” said Professor Daniel Miller of University College London.
Sources: theage.com.au
