The use of Facebook as a social networking tool has been shown to be in such mortal decline that it has been pronounced “dead and buried”.
The prognosis comes from a study on how older teenagers use social media.
Facebook’s baton appears to have passed to older relatives, among whom it remains popular.
Younger people have already shifted away to simpler networks such as Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp and Snapchat. But they keep their profiles live for the sake of keeping family members in touch.
This marks a significant change from its early days a decade ago when it appealed to younger users at university. Now, according to one researcher, younger people “feel embarrassed even to be associated with it”.
It is also a turnaround from the time when parents were concerned about their children joining Facebook to where the parents insist that they stay there to post information about their activities.
The study, funded by the European Union, canvassed 16 to 18-year olds in eight countries for 15 months.
WhatsApp has overtaken Facebook as the number one way to send messages, say the researchers, while Snapchat has gained in popularity in recent months by allowing users to send images which “self-destruct” after a short period on the recipients phone in order to maintain privacy.
Snapchat claims that 350 million images are sent every day. Researchers found that close friends were using Snapchat to communicate, while WhatsApp was used with acquaintances and Twitter broadcasted indiscriminately to anyone who chose to follow that person.
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