[Infowarrior] - Cool kids abandon social networking sites

[Richard Forno]

It's SO over: cool cyberkids abandon social networking sites
• Datablog: get the numbers behind this story

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/aug/06/young-abandon-social-networking-sites

 From uncles wearing skinny jeans to mothers investing in ra-ra skirts  
and fathers nodding awkwardly along to the latest grime record, the  
older generation has long known that the surest way to kill a youth  
trend is to adopt it as its own. The cyberworld, it seems, is no  
exception.

The proliferation of parents and teachers trawling the pages of  
Facebook trying to poke old schoolfriends and lovers, and traversing  
the outer reaches of MySpace is causing an adolescent exodus from the  
social networking sites, according to research from the media  
regulator Ofcom.

The sites, once the virtual streetcorners, pubs and clubs for millions  
of 15- to 24-year-olds, have now been over-run by 25- to 34-year-olds  
whose presence is driving their younger peers away.

Is Facebook for old fogies? The Guardian's Richard Wray investigates  
Link to this audio
Although their love of being online shows no sign of abating, the  
percentage of 15- to 24-year-olds who have a profile on a social  
networking site has dropped for the first time – from 55% at the start  
of last year to 50% this year. In contrast, 46% of 25- to 34-year-olds  
are now regularly checking up on sites such as Facebook compared with  
40% last year.

Overall, 30% of British adults have a social networking profile,  
against 21% in 2007 when Ofcom first did the research. Half the UK's  
online population have a Facebook profile and spend an average of  
nearly six hours a month on the site compared with four hours in May  
2008.

"There is nothing to suggest overall usage of the internet among 15-to  
24-year-olds is going down," said Peter Phillips, the regulator's head  
of strategy. "Data suggests they are spending less time on social  
networking sites."

James Thickett, director of market research at Ofcom, said that while  
older people seemed to be embracing social networking sites, Facebook  
and MySpace remained immensely popular with children under 16.

"Clearly take-up among under 16-year-olds is very high … so we cannot  
say for certain whether this is people in a certain age group who are  
not setting up social networking profiles or whether it's a population  
shift which is reflecting people getting older and having a social  
networking profile that they set up two years ago," he said. "The main  
point is the profile of social networking users is getting older."

The arrival of the 25- to 34-year-old age group, meanwhile, also  
appears to be behind the explosion in usage of Twitter.