Facebook No Longer Cool?

Things can change on a dime I'm telling you! According to an article in the Telegraph, teens see Facebook as "dead and buried." According to the article, it's not just that Facebook is on a slide or on a "downturn" but it's literally dying or even dead with teens. The reason? Teens see it only as a network for keeping in touch with older family members. Not in a bad way necessarily, but that the function of Facebook is seen differently than before. Facebook is, apparently, being replaced by other social networks like Twitter and Snapchat (and Google+ based on my observations) because they're simpler.

In an ironic twist, the article says: "Where once parents worried about their children joining Facebook, children now say it is their family that insists they stay there to post about their lives. Parents have worked out how to use the site and see it as a way for the family to remain connected. In response, the young are moving on to cooler things."

Who else remembers when Facebook overtook MySpace literally within a year? Well now it looks like some other social network may take down Facebook with teens looking for something simpler and, perhaps, more private. Maybe that's due to them being raised in a world where the government and even the school systems are removing layer after layer of privacy and even spying on them. Or maybe it's just that the new kid on the block is more trendy (like what happened to Myspace when Facebook was the new kid on the block).

Personally, I think that Facebook won't be completely replaced like Myspace. I think that teens will use Facebook more as they get older and want to easily stay connected to their friends and family. As it is now for teens, they see most of their friends at school, live with their family and see the extended family quite a bit because they go along with their parents. But as those roots are pulled up, they'll see what their parents eventually saw in Facebook and that was that it was a tool for keeping in contact with those we care about. For all the times that some preachers have slammed Facebook, it's really been about keeping in touch with friends and family which was something that was done using other tools in the past such as letters, postcards, phones, etc. Those weren't slammed so I don't know why Facebook would be. It is actually pro-family when you think about it.

I happen to be more into Google+ these days (though I still keep a presence on Facebook) because of its ease of use, cleaner format and function and because I think it's going to only get larger in the future. I actually enjoy it more. I wondered if my cooling on Facebook was just me. Apparently I was a little ahead of the trend. Does that make me cool? In the words of Michael Scott, "Yes, yes it does." ;)