Here’s some bad news to start the year! Facebook is dead and buried!!! That’s according to a new report that suggests teenagers are moving away because they’re embarrassed to be associated with it. The reason? Their parents are now using it!
The research carried out by University College London suggests that younger people are apparently turning away from it ‘in their droves’ to ‘cooler’ websites such as Instagram, Snapchat, WhatsApp and Twitter!
The European Union-funded study on social media, working with 16 to 18 year olds revealed that in the UK, Facebook is not just on the slide, it is basically ‘dead and buried’!
Interestingly, the sites and apps that have ‘hit the spot’ are no match for Facebook in terms of functionality. Most of the youngsters apparently recognised that, in many ways, Facebook is ‘technically better’ than the likes of Twitter or Instagram for integrating and sharing things like photo albums, organising parties and more effective for observing people’s relationships.
WhatsApp is recognised as being better for messaging and has now overtaken Facebook as the number one way to send mobile messages, but it doesn’t offer the overall social network functionality. This suggests that the dynamics of new media may depend on factors other than function.
The research says that the main reasons for the switch are nothing to do with the ‘big brother’ mass surveillance revelations of last year, or any issue with Facebook as a corporation – after all, they do own Instagram. No, the main reason is that mums and dads are using it, and the youngsters dread the prospect of their parents sending them a ‘friend’ request! It’s interesting that as parents recognise the potential value of Facebook as a ‘family connector’, part of that family doesn’t want to connect!
So, what does all this mean for you and your business? Well I think it illustrates a number of things to consider as we begin in 2014:
- The rapid pace of change and the constant emergence of ‘new’ things is a challenge for all businesses – do you know where your ‘challenges’ are coming from this year?
- Different customers want different things – are you aware of what your different types of customers want?
- What some customers want isn’t always about the ‘tangible’ stuff – do you know what your customers really value?
- Businesses have to adapt – Facebook has consistently adapted over the years – many felt it wouldn’t work – it continues to do so – are you ready for change in 2014?
Here’s to a great 2014 for us all – and if you want to ‘friend’ me on Facebook, don’t worry, I won’t be embarrassed!
Hi Andy: you’ve asked excellent questions in your section ‘things to consider in 2014.’ My takeaway from your points is that no company’s position is unassailable (Steve Ballmer, are you reading this?).
But the ‘dead and buried’ description reflects a myopia about technology that I encounter frequently. For whatever reasons, people tend to think of technologies as successors to what came before, rather than coexisting.
When RFID technologies were introduced, many people forecast the end of the ubiquitous barcode. But barcodes are far from ‘dead’ – however ‘dead’ might be defined in this context. There are thousands of other examples. I’m continually surprised to see old designs introduced in modern contexts (e.g. Today, Fiskars makes a rotary manual lawnmower that’s very close in design to the first one that was patented.)
Facebook is far from dead and buried. Sure – teenagers understandably are loathe to embrace the platform because it puts them under even tighter scrutiny with mom and dad – and now, increasingly, Grandma and Grandad – which I understand is now the fastest growing age demographic on Facebook!
As the saying goes, for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
Andrew – great points! I’m with you on that – I’m sure Facebook will adapt and continue to do so- even if the teenagers go elsewhere!
The challenge is for all of us to do the same!