Sorry, but social networks simply aren’t cool anymore among the 15-to-24-year-old crowd. (I’m 23, and have all but quit Facebook (I stopped tweeting a few months ago), but that’s more of a function of me being an anti-social cad than anything else.) Why? It seems the older crowd—people 25 and older—has given social networks the unmistakable stench of being not cool. Why would an 18-year-old kid want to mimic the lifestyle of a 30-year-old?
Now, while I’m thrilled to read this news, there are a few caveats. It’s not like 15-to-24-year-olds are not using the Internet anymore. (No, they’re using YouTube to listen to music, and using Rapidshare to download TV shows.) And a lot of those older users (25+) are responsible for the growth of Twitter of late.
Breaking down the numbers—all these numbers come from a recent Ofcom study, which I should have mentioned far earlier in this post—some 46 percent of people aged 25-to-34 regularly check Facebook compared to 40 percent one year ago. Meanwhile, 50 percent of kids aged 15-to-24 regularly check Facebook, down from 55 percent one year ago. Our own DBru notes kids don’t like this stuff because it doesn’t feel safe.
And another data set suggests that kids under the age of 16 are still crazy for social network sites. So who knows what’s going on?
In any event, I look forward to the day when the word “Twitter” is expunged from the English language.
wait, is this really someone at techcrunch bashing twitter?
maybe he meant to say that he expects “I tweet” to be replaced by “I write/talk” to my “friends”
All this prooves is that 30 is the new 20 and 20 is the new 10.
:P
“doesn’t feel safe” hyperlink talks about twitter, not fb. What do you mean by it, is it fb or twitter?
Jeez, all these guys of at least 25 start up this great means of communicating.
Then the kids move in, use it up, and now they start spitting it out…
Leaving the founders (at least thirty something by now) sore and DDOS’d on the sidewalk
:-)
sore and DDOS’d on the sidewalk… with enormous duffelbags stuffed with money.
Let the record show that I do, in fact, think Twitter is silly.
That’s funny because it’s the only way I’d have ever noticed that your article existed.
Irony+2
LOL. Same here.
For that matter I wouldn’t know CrunchGear existed.
Irony+4
I’m sure glad I’ve got this “silly” service to help me find Tech news! =P
Then why do you tweet?
I don’t tweet anything. (Or at least I haven’t since I quit in the springtime.) TechCrunch has it set up so that every post we write gets automatically tweeted. Believe me, I think it’s lame-o.
you get cool points cause i agree. now if only people can make this point of view popular so we can all go back to normal and not telling the world that you woke up, took a shit, ate, read a book, went to work, went to sleep. i don’t care. it makes for good lurking though. all these people leaving all their information on all these websites. makes life really easy.
You should chalenge MG to a segway joust over twitter love/hate. Just make sure the competition is scheduled so the public can watch the cam. Should have some twitter related wager on the outcome.
Here’s a full analysis of twitter demographics as of July 2009:
http://www.istrategylabs.com/2009-facebook-demographics-and-statistics-report-513-growth-in-55-year-old-users-college-high-school-drop-20/
what is wrong with facebook today? cant access anything, no messages, no photos, nothing. must be too many 25 year olds.
Suspect that the same people that are causing Twitter to have issues are working overtime.
Find this post very interesting as I was curious to know what this age group is using.
@techdom
4chan
It’s not ALWAYS 4chan.
I think someone is bashing Twitter. Is that why it is down? Hmmmm
Could it be that the 5% shift has come from the 24 year olds turning 25?
Exactly! I was a sophomore in college when Facebook came to Indiana University. I’m about to be 25. I doubt this decrease has anything to do with my activities on Facebook suddenly becoming uncool. (although my married friends with kids – they’re really lame’ing up the place)
By the way, someone should teach this technologically savvy kid copy and paste so he can put his Ofcom study earlier in the post like he so wishes. Don’t worry kid, they teach you that when you turn 24.
But if 5% of 24 year olds turned 25, what about the 34 year olds that turned 35 and the 14 year olds that turned 15?
Carbog If 5% of 24 year olds turned 25 then that must mean there is a 95% death rate.
Um…. I think what’s meant is that if 5% of those who were 24 and turned 25 WITHIN THE DATE RANGE OF THE STATISTICAL REPORTING PERIOD… duh
Those 95% were probably hit by the XBox red ring of death. ouch.
Wow, this makes me feel old, and I shouldn’t. I just turned 24… and I remember how OLD I thought 24 was when I was in mIRC chat rooms when I was 12 and I didn’t want to be in any room or have anything to do with people that age, not necessarily because it “doesn’t feel safe”, but more because they were “grown-ups” and it made me think only weirdos would be chatting online with kids and that they should have better things to do. And as the last 12 years have passed I really don’t feel that much older, and they probably didn’t feel old then either… and they still wouldn’t even be old now… it’s a matter of perspective really.
yeah, but if you went and hung out with some 6th graders you would feel old.
Any site with a game called “sorority life” filled with 30-50 year olds is lame.
Death to Facebook and Twitter – the chants from teens and young adults.
Facebook is down. No coverage???
News Corp to start charging for ALL sites. No coverage???
COME ON!
Murdoch Story
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b103cb1a-81f9-11de-9c5e-00144feabdc0.html
Very bold of hiim and interesting. Good for startups – if people will pay for news online they would pay for anything that they wanted…
Anyone notice that MySpace is working fine today while its competitors are struggling? Mere coincidence?
Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that Myspace is getting more and more irrelevant these days.
lol. supposedly myspace is more secure than twitter. shocking. so new startups presumably just don’t have the power behind them to manage their connectivity like how fb did. i can’t believe twitter went down…especially since it’s userbase is huge now.
A lot of people who signed up for Facebook in college (when they were under 25) are now over 25 too. It’s been around for 5 years, so the age of regular Facebook users could just be getting older, and switching demographics categories.
Pathetic you think 30 year olds are old. Pity you when you hit 65.
Thought the same Eric but when then I remebered being 20 and at that age 30 was OLD!
anyone older than me is old. my cousin is 28 and she’s a member of the old club.
This whole article could have been summed up in one boring sentence, instead of a few pointless “hey I’m younger than you” paragraphs. Here is this story: Olds + 6%, Youngs -5%. Yawn. Who let their little brother get into their WordPress account?
I hate using [the phone].
Far too many people [in the age bracket above me] use it, and that’s just not cool. And there’s people [in the age bracket below me] using it too now, so childish!
I’m gonna go back to using [the communication technology before the phone] more, it’s way cooler, and also I use [the communications technology after the phone] loads to and so do my mates.
Perfect response to a stupid effing article. Cheers Phil!
It’s called “being young”, you prick.
You have all been part of it, so STFU.
Agreed.
Hehe…good one.
Nailed it. Thread over.
I wonder if AIM has died down in popularity. Was quite the thing in my day.
http://www.traderbots.com
I disagree. I’m way over 30 and use facebook, but my daughter and her friends all use it like crazy and they are in the 18-21 age bracket…
So maybe Nick thinks that it isn’t cool anymore, but I don’t think he’s right…
Perhaps you should stop using facebook and take a class on ’statistics’.
Go on, all the old people are doing it,
Well, as long as you have one example, then you *must* be right.
Dave, you and your kids do not constitute a valid statistical sample.
Amen OP. I too am so sick of all this Facebook and Twitter talk. I sometimes feel that I am the last 34 year old person on earth that is not signed up for these social sites. I have friends that are addicted to them; which absolutely drives me nuts. I will go over to their homes, and they will dick around on their laptops instead of conversing with me, sitting two feet from them. I have threatened to leave a few times, making them get the point of how rude it is to sit their in front of me speechless updating their Facebook accounts. And they are the ones that invited me over to their home!
Do you feel the same way when they take cell phone calls/messages around you?
Don’t blame the technology, blame your friend’s use of it. My friends don’t act this way and still use Facebook every day.
I am 23 for the 5th consecutive year, and that makes me old?! Ouch. Time to tweet about my hurt feelings.
The way I see it, Facebook is still in. MySpace is out, and Twitter won’t be in for a while.
The nice thing about being over 30 is that you’re old enough to realize “cool” doesn’t mean shit.
this is true.
although i think kids…well not kids but the teenagers (who are also guilty of using the word) know that cool is now meaningless. it has taken on too many meanings and has become relative to each person.
I call BS.
1. Facebook has a historically older crowd. It started off as. College only site!
2. Its demographic is growing up WITH the site! I signed onto Facebook at 22, and am 27 now. I’m using Facebook now more than ever!
3. Only old people (35+ yo) use or care about Twitter.
i was going to use the college fact too, but college students can be of many age groups, but it’s mostly the 20’s demographic. i think the people who aren’t using twitter are in more of the younger demographic. it’s true that young people who have used facebook are continuing to use it. i shake my head at all my family members and friends who signed up in college/hs and are now fossil fb users.
i don’t have a twitter, but i have been lurking it to see if i want to get an account, and there’s lots of old people on twitter. some young people but they use their twitter like their fb accounts and don’t really follow strangers and probabbly don’t know how to use twitter effectively. but there’s also many young people on twitter who are heavily connected. it’s always neat seeing how people are building their followers. noticed spam accounts and tweets on twitter. i didn’t have a lot of fb spam when i had an account. by the time i left people had just been starting that, and also getting multiple fb accounts.
this sounds like great news for the sites. i think they would be happier with demo of 25-50 than the 18-24 with no money to spend.
I had this growing feeling, this was happening. I really don’t care about seeing my college friends get drunk every other day or amassing hundreds of friends. Once you leave college and get a little bit older, priorities change. You’re no longer stalking that girl from English class on FB but rather trying to find how you can get a solid job. http://ziggytek.com/
You’re a huge idiot. Facebook is still wildly popular with kids and college students, because we aren’t affected by who else is on the site other than our friends. Those who don’t want to friend their parents don’t.
Many, like me, completely restrict what their parents can see. Not a problem at all.
I never had friends, and online networking made it perfectly clear that i was a chud and no one wanted to be my friend. Good Riddance!
Since when are 24 year olds kids; heck matter of fact when is anyone 18 and up a kid
Spoken like a true 18-24 year older.
About the time when 25 year-olds were considered old people.
Data point of one, but Facebook has become the absolute best location for aggregating old friends/colleagues from universities and jobs and keeping tabs on their progress and families without having to exchange Christmas cards. By that definition, FB is much more suitable for an older, post-college, post-first job crowd (i.e., folks old enough to have multiple circles that need aggregating).
So, you quit using Facebook because it’s “not cool”? You’re 23 and out of high school – Just because everyone else quit watching Power Rangers doesn’t mean you have to anymore ;)
I find FB useful for sharing photos and such. I’m 24 and glad that the older crowd is moving in – I’d hate for FB to become another MySpace.
The assertion of this article is not true, in my experience, among undergraduate college students. In the past few weeks I’ve interviewed over 50 undergrads at schools all across the USA, large and small, 2-year and 4-year. Without fail, every single interviewee has said that Facebook is essentially universally adopted and regularly used by the students at their schools – not many students, not most students, but 99%+ of the students at EVERY college we discussed.
Rapidshare for TV shows? What the hell?
I know, right?
I was actually wondering about this the other day. Started thinking about how convenient social networking must be for parents today. An easily accessible database of all your child’s friends… wow, the parents of yesteryear would have given anything for something like that, no doubt. Especially since it’s all voluntary and there’s no work required by the parents (the only thing required of the parents is staying informed).
With that said, I quickly realized that kids are smarter than this and figured they must be running away from social networks as quickly as they discover them.
PS (Nicholas, brackets go inside of parenthesis [like this] because double parenthesis are grammatically confusing. And wrong.) Word.
The above was not supposed to be a response to a comment, but rather a response to the blog entry (read: article).
The comment system here, and all other Crunch sites, has always succeeded in pissing me off.
This is a stupid article.
I am glad that all the “kids” are moving away from Facebook. I would rather it be seen as “not cool” by people under 25 – that way people who will use Facebook for something useful (networking and so on) don’t have to be bogged down by kids talking about beer pong and the latest Akon single.
What’s the difference, and why should Zuck care? The 15-24 crowd isn’t monetizable anyway. Every web marketer knows this. That crowd is just wasted traffic.
What is this article saying? This is a waste of bandwidth.
This article is lame.
this is the dumbest article i have ever read. did you learn in high school, i wonder, that headlines should reflect the content rather than sensationalize it? you’re 23, and your writing style shows it. 50% (ie HALF) of kids 15-24 regularly check Facebook. still seems like a big number to me.
Please capitalize when necessary.
“It seems the older crowd—people 25 and older—has given social networks the unmistakable stench of being not cool.”
That’s OK. We think you’re lame too. You’re spotty, boring conversationalists, poor with grammar and terrible in bed. And your hair is stupid.
Right on. Older people don’t “stench”. We have, at worst, “aroma”.
And we can spell big words. And we can construct long sentences with correct grammar. And we can become repetitive without ever even going over 140 characters.
Older people just rock. But that’s just my opinion.
I’m old too. However, you ruined your post in multiple ways. For example:
a. You started multiple sentences with the word “And.”
b. You started a single sentence with the word “But.”
c. You put your period after the closing quotes. Reference (a) and (b) above for proper usage.
d. You failed to use a big word to solidify that you could, in fact, spell a big word.
e. You certainly could not construct a long sentence with correct grammar.
f. I think your footprint exudes far more “stench” than “aroma.”
Of course, that’s just my opinion!
-M
In those instances where I have attained perfection, let me serve as an example. In those instances where I have transgressed, let me serve as a warning.
OK….so where does a sixty-one year old male go next in order to be cool?
Oh. Wait! I don’t care about being cool. And my offspring (18-23) don’t care about that either. Their friends don’t seem to care about being cool.
It seems it is no longer cool to be cool. Or at least to care about it.
This is all good.
Srsly, since leaving high school, who cares about being cool? The only reason “cool” every mattered in high school was because there are a bunch of children together all day every day.
We all live our own seperate lives and enjoy our own seperate things. Cool is a matter of perspective and that is it.
So there we are. Just as I suspected.
Only problem is, I can’t remember leaving high school. It is really really a long time ago. “Cool” was not even invented yet.
Facebook has also taken popularity with the older set who sometimes like to use it for “business” networking.
I’m trying to collect some insights and opinions on open networking applications if you’d like to take my brief survey. Thanks!
http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dG1QQmJmY2VQNlp1a3RUT0E5ZWpxeHc6MA..
My blog is new, but I wrote about this back on August 1.
http://www.bwilhelm.com/2009/08/01/facebook-is-becoming-the-new-aol/
You have a blog. That’s nice.
Is blogging still cool? I am asking because I am thinking of starting a blog, but I don’t want to do anything that’s cool.
Wait…it’s not cool to blog? Then it’s probably even uncooler™ to post comments on a blog. I might as well go join facebook in my mother’s basement.
Wait for me!
I’m old, but I only like to do stuff that’s cool.
Can you please help me?
Jonas brothers – cool?
Halo – cool?
voting – cool?
thanks
You are a person after my own heart. Except for the cool thing.
“it’s a fool…that plays it cool…by making the wold…a little bit colder..”
It’s simple really. The demographic you outlined were the early adopters. They made these sites what they were and enjoyed the utility they delivered.
The sites still deliver utility but that utility has changed. Which has left the 10 year demographic reeling. They’re suffering from good ol’ days syndrome. They’ll take a break from the services, before moving to new ones, or re-integrating with different use goals.
Aaah, the joys of summer internship at TC…
Really? This is news to me because nearly every single one of my friends has a Facebook and several (although considerably less) have Twitter and I’m 22.
fantastic – now I can stop twittering
Lame article by a “kid” (I’m 27) trying to be the one “calling out” the descent of Facebook. Seriously, dude… too early.
allow me to apply the logic of this post to something that impacts me personally. chinese food.
i’m chinese. i’m tired of chinese food. therefore chinese food is no longer cool and panda express will soon go out of business.
Don’t forget Christine the expression of disbelief that people younger and older than you seem to still like Chinese food.
brb. i’m hoarding egg rolls in case they run out now that they’re losing popularity. you know how much i can sell them for on the black market once word gets out that i no longer like chinese food?
As always, your post is sly and completely on point, Christine. I usually follow up on your links when they appear in Facebook – glad I dropped in on this one. :)
I don’t like FaceBook’s app or layout, the pages look too ‘messy’ with everyone’s comment links posted in between my posts, they need to keep in in two separate columns or on a separate blog like MySpace…so I tried to clean up my FaceBook page then one of my members accused me of being arrogant, antisocial & told all of his friend to drop off my FaceBook…..yuk
Right now social networks are like the Gold Rush of 1849, after a few years things will level out & only the best of the best will survive…& we’ll get back to being social on our neighborhood front porch like the old days…
I am 20 years old and while I may not like to admit it, I use Facebook way too much. I can often be found looking at friend’s pictures and reading my wall posts. It is hard to believe that kids aren’t using Facebook as much. For one thing, my friends all have Facebook pages and from the status updates I see on my home page, it is clear that they all use it daily.
Michelle Chun-Hoon
CKR Interactive Intern
CKRinteractive.com
Just look at it! facebook is a heap o’ crap. Why shouldn’t its popularity decline as it becomes ever more of a mess?
Nicholas is on to something. I am a 25 year old female who has been using facebook since 2003, and prefer it over Myspace. (I recently deleted my account). BUT! Now that facebook is gaining popularity my parents, uncles, aunts, and other way younger cousins are joining and for whatever reason, facebook is no longer fun for me. It used to be exclusive to my university friends, and it is now a freeforall mumbojumbo of FarmTown games and my mom liking every status update I make. (sighs).
My point exactly.
“And she’ll have fun, fun, fun, ’till her momma takes her Facebook away….”
Haha! Cute.
Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, and basically all social media has never been cool.
Myspace has always been the same shitpile, spamfest, survey, bullshit since it started. The allure is to find your friends, but who really cares since you already have them on your AIM or in your phone?
Facebook has been awful because it promotes viral advertising. People blindly “becomes a fan…” of the stupidest shit, which is the perfect platform for companies. Your friend has become friends of Chex cereal. I don’t care. All that did was put Chex in my mind, which is the same thing as advertising. Fuck off Facebook.
Twitter has always been shit because it’s a clusterfuck of egotism. I had an account early on, said ‘meh’ and closed it, but recently opened another accout to see if it changed. Nope. Still people talking about shitty topics, celebrities, spam.
In my opinion, forums are still the backbone of logical discussion on the net. You’re able to actually craft conversations which are worthwhile, while shit posts gets you banned or laughed off.
You guys can have social media back. All it is, is any other platform to advertise. Users create content with good intention, but the companies reap all the rewards.
Eh.
That’s what I love about young people. Positive, enthusiastic, articulate, persistent and intelligent.
Alex would be proud of you!
Yes I’m young. But what does that have to do with the blaring fact that social media has always, and will always be a complete shitfest.
You’re able to connect with friends from school, congratulations.
How many times do you want to talk about the same articles over and over again? It’s all stagnation. For every 100 posts, there is maybe 1 that is decent enough to read, but it’s still dribble.
I am enthusiastic about the net, because it has changed the world for the better. You’re now able to talk with anyone in the world. Discuss politics with people raised on completely different morals, and learn any possible subject.
But social media doesn’t cut it. It’s a mob mentality which promotes garbage.
Droogs — you made an assumption that I was being sarcastic. I was not.
I agree with you that only 1% of all posts on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter — and here — are worth more than a glance. In the case of this (rather tiresome now) discussion, that 1% (for me) was your post, in spite of it’s reliance on expletives and scatological references to attract attention and shock.
The sad and depressing fact is that most of life is like that. And so Facebook et al just represent another slice of society, another sample of the primordial ooze that we live in. It’s no better and no worse.
The only thing that makes it bearable is the 1%. And that is why you, my droog (if I may call you that) come back to Twitter (or here) again and (I am guessing) again and again….because you crave and need that 1%. And you won’t find more than 1% at Starbucks, or the PTA meeting, or the prayer meeting, or the key-swapping party or anywhere else where more than 2 or 3 people gather.
But I digress. Nice chatting to you.
Wow, the single worst post in techcrunch history!
Here’s some data… it says one thing, but it really says another. So who knows what’s going on? I clearly don’t. But I just thought I’d write an article just because I got some data… I don’t have time to analyze it though or do more research.
Pathetic. You need a new career.
i was thinking the same thing: terrible post.
Epic Fail. Perhaps the author of the post just isn’t.. “cool”
Heh, I came over from RSS to comment as well. I am usually not aware of “bad” posts but this was terrible.