An extensive study by the University College London proclaims that Facebook is “basically dead and buried” with many UK teenagers feeling embarrassed even to be associated with it, choosing to move to “cooler” social networks like Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp and Snapchat. Professor Daniel Miller, from University College London said “Where once parents worried about their children joining Facebook, the 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”.
The report also highlights how young people share information online. Their findings show that the information people choose to share on Facebook has generally been through a ‘psychological filtering’ process, which is unlike conversations, photos and videos shared through more private tools such as WhatsApp and Snapchat.
This is view further supported by our Living with Future of Britain work. Our Shy vs. Shameless trend talks about how the young generation have a different attitude to social media to their predecessors and how the permanence of platforms like Facebook are giving way to more ‘fluid’ services like WhatsApp and Snapchat.
Read more on the study and its findings here:
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/dec/27/facebook-dead-and-buried-to-teens-research-finds