Facebook and why it will ultimately fail

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EmptyTimCup

Guest
Facebook, The 'Teenage Version Of Email'




After five years on Facebook, Maxine Guttmann, 15, just isn’t that into it.

She visits Facebook less frequently than ever -- mostly to instant message with friends -- and while she updates her Tumblr blog daily, it’s been “weeks” since she’s shared on Facebook.

“When I was little, Facebook was the coolest thing to do. And I as got older, it got stupider and I have more commitments,” said Guttmann, a rising junior in New York City. “On Tumblr, I feel like I can post all the stuff I’m interested in. On Facebook, not all my friends are interested in the same stuff I am. And a lot aren’t even my close friends anymore.”

Amid doubts following Facebook’s disappointing public offering, teens have been a bright spot for the social network. Co-founder Mark Zuckerberg might not have figured out how to maintain ad revenue momentum or adapt to cellphones, but with 93 percent of 12- to 17-year-old social media users on Facebook, it’s long been assumed this young army of digital natives would build a solid foundation for Facebook.

That foundation is looking shaky. For teens, Facebook has become the equivalent of Microsoft Outlook or AOL Instant Messenger, experts say: It has evolved from a hot hangout, to a practical and dull tool for chatting about homework or catching up with faraway friends. Bored, overwhelmed by huge friend groups and exhausted by the digital popularity contests Facebook fosters, many teens are taking refuge in social services such as Tumblr and Twitter.

Facebook is “the teenage version of email,” said danah boyd, an assistant researcher at New York University specializing in youth and social media. “What’s so interesting about Facebook is that it’s not interesting to [teens]. That’s a big challenge for Facebook -- not because people won’t use it, but when they’re not passionate about it, you see a very different kind of user behavior than when someone is passionate about a service.”

Teens are less likely than their parents and grandparents to browse Facebook in a given month. Sixty-six percent of 12- to 17-year-olds visited Facebook in May this year, compared to 69 percent of web users between 55- and 64-years-old, and 71 percent of all Americans online, according to comScore, a digital analytics company. Other social media sites are chipping away at the time teens spend on the world’s largest social network. Though Facebook is still by far the most popular site among teens, 12- to 17-year-olds spent 77 percent of their social networking time on Zuckerberg’s site in May 2012, while the average user dedicates 85 percent of her online socializing to browsing Facebook, comScore data show.

Because marketers are eager to pitch to teens, who have disposable incomes and still-malleable shopping habits, younger users are a critical part of Facebook’s sales pitch to advertisers bankrolling Zuckerberg’s operation, experts say.

“Any network that doesn’t figure out how to engage teens and keep them engaged is going to lose out in the next five to 10 years,” said Brian Solis, an analyst with the Altimeter Group, a research firm. “Facebook is enamored, or should be, with this group because it’s the key to Facebook’s future relevance. If they can find ways to keep teens engaged, they can keep brands engaged.”
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parents and grands parents will not sustain the ad revenue need to keep Facebook afloat for 40 yrs .... :lol: maybe not even 10

IMHO they tend to be less 'impulse' shopping
 
Katt

Katt

Active Member
I totally agree. I use facebook myself, but mostly to keep up with what's going on with my family far away. But I've also found that Twitter has a more "in the moment" appeal that FB doesn't. I thought that when FB went public, it had past it's peak and thought it would be a bad investment as it's going by the way of "myspace". Sad to say, nothing sticks around on the internet more than 5-10 years anyway as far as social networking goes. JMHO
 
vraiblonde

vraiblonde

Board Mommy
PREMO Member
Patron
Facebook has already made its bazillions, so it can "fail" all it wants to and everyone involved will still be rich. In fact it is my impression that Zuckerberg and Co are actively trying to make it fail so they can be done with it. How else do you explain them changing their model to become more intrusive, more commercial, less user friendly, and less secure?
 
GWguy

GWguy

*
Facebook won't 'fail', it will simply be supplanted by the next, bigger, greater Internet 'thing to do'.
 
Larry Gude

Larry Gude

Strung Out
There is an interesting report out now from Verizon that they are seeing a significant drop off in e mail, replaced by texting and tweeting. In this immediate age, we want, it seems, more immediate.

FB is less and less immediate. I do think there will always be a role for a 'stable' archival type presence on the web where folks can, at their leisure, catch up on friends and family and share pics and stuff in between the barrages of texts and tweets. I actually dislike the PM feature of FB; I'm just surfing, leave me alone.

FB needs to find their role and stick to it and I think it is an 'archival', surfing role as opposed to competing where it can't with the RIGHT NOW stuff.
 
DEEKAYPEE8569

DEEKAYPEE8569

Well-Known Member
GWguy said:
Facebook won't 'fail', it will simply be supplanted by the next, bigger, greater Internet 'thing to do'.
Click to expand...

That would be the more frequently used Twitter, wouldn't it?
The thing about Twitter is, people Tweet everything.
"Going to Florida for three weeks this summer." THAT kinda stuff.
So,when they come home, nothing's left.
 
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