

Facebook is Getting Old - elaineo
http://www.dailydot.com/lifestyle/facebook-older-trend-twitter-tumblr/

======
threeseed
Wow Kevin sure does like Facebook:

[http://www.dailydot.com/authors/kevin-
morris/](http://www.dailydot.com/authors/kevin-morris/)

And the problem with that graph/article is that it fails to consider the size
of the user bases. Facebook is so huge that its demographic breakdown mirrors
that of the real world. Whilst all the other sites have a fraction of the user
base so obviously their graph will skew more towards the type of site they
have.

Maybe there should be a graph of how many 0-20 year olds there are on Facebook
versus the other sites.

~~~
kmmokai
As the Kevin in question I would like to point out this article was written by
someone who is very much not me.

~~~
hkmurakami
Apparently the article in question was written by a fellow named Tim Sampson.

[http://www.dailydot.com/authors/tim-
sampson/](http://www.dailydot.com/authors/tim-sampson/)

------
Ixiaus
The PRISM/NSA blowout was the last straw to break this camel's back. I've been
growing dissatisfied with the constant urge to check Facebook/Twitter/G+ all
the time, I've also been irked by how my _very personal_ information, posts,
and communications were being used to make money _for Facebook_.

There were many things I've said to people through Facebook that I actually
wouldn't like to have data-mined (no matter who's doing it, Facebook,
AdAgencyX, or the NSA).

While my Google searches, email, and other "free" services are still used in a
similar capacity - I'm also working to switch off of those.

Leaving Facebook has been the best thing I've done so far. I feel lighter and
less heavy with the urge to check it ALL the time.

~~~
tallon
I feel the same way - lighter, unencumbered. I left Facebook almost a year ago
and haven't been back. My main reason was privacy concerns, but I also felt
empty after checking it many times a day. It was a great decision, and more
people in my social circle have left since.

------
just2n
I think this is a bit misleading. We're drawing the conclusion from age based
metrics that if a lot of young people use a service, relative to older adults,
it must be "hip" or "new."

Consider Disney.com. Nothing new or hip about it. I'd bet >80% of the users
are under 30.

I think this is a fairly incorrect assumption, and it feels like it's being
used to justify an opinion about Facebook here by undermining how "cool" and
"hip" it is.

Just come out and say what you want to say. Facebook sucks, and there's
definitely nothing new about it anymore. I'll do you a favor and not try to
trick you into agreeing with my opinion by making misleading correlations
between it and objective data. If you disagree with me, awesome, you've found
something of value in Facebook. That's great for you. I hate it. We're
different! :)

~~~
jiggy2011
I think cool and hip is 16-25 year olds, not 10 year olds.

~~~
just2n
Potentially. So we agree there's nothing hip about Disney.com? I was trying to
provide a counter example to the general thesis of the article.

The reason it really doesn't hold at all, in general, is because many websites
(and particularly their contents, not necessarily the sites themselves) cater
to different interests, and it's really not a surprise that people in
different age groups have different interests. It's also certainly not
surprising that Reddit caters to the interests of younger people more than
Facebook does.

~~~
jiggy2011
I think the point is that younger people tend to be early adopters of a new
platform. It's probably easier to get middle aged people to start using a
platform popular with 20somethings than the other way around.

So if one wanted to create something to rival facebook, create a place that
suits the needs of the younger generation better than facebook does, the rest
will eventually follow.

Even reddit seems to have a healthy following amongst "older" people.

------
ryanmerket
Teens are still using Facebook. It's become a utility to stay in contact. It
might be 'cool' to say you're not using it, but the reality (read: data) shows
that they use it more than ever.

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mratzloff
Hmm. The more interesting point is that nearly half of the Hacker News
community is under 24.

~~~
gcb0
If the data source is doubleclick, how does it even know who's on HN?

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bbx
I'm surprised to see how young deviantART users are considering the quality of
its content. Since 2006, this site has been my goto location for anything
graphic-related: drawings, web designs, pictures, Photoshop brushes and
actions... Maybe 0-24 years old is the period when you're the most creative?

About Facebook: it's a website where you _build_ your network, especially with
family and close friends. Although I don't visit it anymore, I know my friends
and family use it solely to follow each other's lives ('What have you been up
to?'), while sharing theirs as well. It's not a one-time visit. You follow the
evolution of your relations' lives, especially the major events of a lifetime:
marriage and children. Facebook is the network where people go to develop and
share their _real_ identity (whether it's a good decision or not). The more
you use it, the more you feel connected to it (and compelled to make a
contribution). That's why most Facebook users who joined it at the age of
25-35 are now in their mid-life, because Facebook is the only online network
they're part of.

~~~
jiggy2011
That's just counting signups. Not necessarily who the active/popular users
are. There's a lot of spam,junk and stolen work on deviantart, the site just
makes efforts to showcase the good stuff.

If you weighted it based on artist popularity you might get a different
picture.

------
elaineo
My parents are on FB, LinkedIn, and tumblr. If they show up on Reddit, I'm
quitting the internet.

~~~
r00fus
Your parents are probably thinking: _mission accomplished_

------
ThomPete
Emails are getting old. That doesn't mean anything.

~~~
elaineo
I think email has been relegated to formal correspondence only. Don't kids
just, uh, tweet at each other?

Soon email will become like the telephone. These days I don't call anybody
unless I need an ambulance.

------
kin
While I agree that it's old now, and not as trendy as other things, Facebook
has become so widely used that being old isn't an issue. For me it's become a
social tool, just like email has become a communications tool. It's not going
away, nor do I need it to be replaced by something trendy.

------
jsanroman
The Problem with Facebook right now, at least for me is that it is getting
very boring. Nothing seems happens on it. Only very few posts appear and I
think it is because they only show you your "closest friends" or people you
have stalked etc or I don't know what parameters they use. Even if I sort by
"more recent" only very few posts appear. I have over 950 friends. I used to
wake up in the morning and login into facebook just to see what my FB friends
did over the night or what happened with my friends in other continents. Now
it takes me 5 minutes to be up to date. Besides, everytime I login I have to
read again the same old posts (Even from the they day before). I don't know
why facebook judges that I have too see that same post again and again
everytime I login. WTF Facebook.

~~~
elaineo
Click on Sort->Most Recent; Top right corner of newsfeed.

------
arasmussen
What's the point of this article? Sometimes it isn't about being cool, it's
about being really useful to a ton of people. Driving a car isn't "hip" or
"cool" (unless you're driving a Tesla) but it sure as hell eases the lives of
hundreds of millions of people.

Facebook's mission isn't to be a "cool hangout" place, it's to make the world
more open and connected. If they developed their product in such a way that it
was only used by younger folk then they'd be excluding 75% of the population
which is not connecting the world.

I'm really sick of these articles.

~~~
nrivadeneira
The point is that Facebook originally gained it's popularity because it was a
"cool hangout". Like the author, I was in college when Facebook first came
out. Being restricted to college kids, it wasn't about "being really useful to
a ton of people". They developed their product in exactly the way you say they
shouldn't.

Of course, that was a long time ago, so this article is obviously far too
late. That all changed the day they allowed non-college-students in.

~~~
arasmussen
I don't think anybody would have heard of them today if they hadn't developed
their product that way.

~~~
nrivadeneira
That's exactly the point - sometimes it _is_ about being cool and _not_ about
being really useful to a ton of people, evidenced by Facebook's early days.

------
iterationx
Reminds me of that old saying, "Every empire carries within it the seeds of
its own destruction."

People usually refer to network effects as positive, but eventually it becomes
negative. Facebook, Eternal September, etc.

------
shklnrj
I think mixing of people from different social circle is going to happen to
any social network which aims to be the default communication tool for the
whole of earth. What I am pissed off more about Facebook is the loads of
advertisements which keep showing up in my feed. That I find to be
unacceptable. There have got to be other business models.

------
nwhitehead
I think there is something to the idea of generational mixing on Facebook
causing a loss of value. A friend today posted a picture of a cat with its
tail in the air where the "view" looked like Jesus. His mother then promptly
commented how not funny it was. Facebook with your parents on it is a
different world than it used to be.

~~~
k-mcgrady
Most people I know wouldn't add their parents or older relatives. Personally
I've only added a few family members (mostly so I can use Facebook Messages
with them), added them to a list, and only explicitly publish to that list.
Most of my content is published to friends except family.

------
420365247
Ive used facebook about 6 months after launch...and in the beginning it was an
cool...but now its boring. Its like there was a party and all the cool people
went home, and the only people still around are old people, families, and
marketers...and the weird kid from high school

~~~
pbhjpbhj
> _the only people still around are old people, families, and marketers...and
> the weird kid from high school_ //

Which one are you? ;0)

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dakrisht
Wrong title. Facebook IS old. For a lot of us. Teens are still on there
heavily, but the transition to mobile is bigger than ever. Teens are heavily
on mobile, rarely on a browser.

FB is also full of maybe 200M+ fake accounts (if we're saying 1.1B total) - I
created a few accounts for testing purposes, research, etc. and added well
over 100 users per account = 99% fake.

What's strange is how FB is still the premier social network when the life
cycle of these things is usually shorter... They have a big user base so that
helps, but something is just around the corner. They'll still be around, but
teens, kids, etc. will transition. Such as the state of the Internets

~~~
k-mcgrady
>> "FB is also full of maybe 200M+ fake accounts"

Source?

~~~
dakrisht
Official source: FB's SEC Form 10-Q
([http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1326801/0001193125123...](http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1326801/000119312512325997/d371464d10q.htm#tx371464_14))

Double or triple that number for reality, plus add a year since that report.
Also common sense when you have 10 accounts with 100 users each, all fake :)

Edit: It's closer to 12-18% of all accounts (incl. 5-6% duplicate accounts)

------
tswartz
It would be interesting to see the age data for services like SnapChat and
Instagram (maybe this was included in FB's age range).

~~~
dakrisht
Assumption: 15 - 22 age range would be the majority of users.

------
whiddershins
I think Bob Lefsetz already wrote this article.

~~~
macavity23
He did:
[http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/index.php/archives/2013/06/02/f...](http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/index.php/archives/2013/06/02/facebook-
is-for-old-people/)

He's worth following, particularly if you're interested in Things Media, and
you like his stream-of-consciousness style.

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pbhjpbhj
Would love to know the methodology used to gather and verify the data for each
site?

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j2d3
facebook _has gotten_ old.

