Hasta La Gadget!

Dec 27

For teens, Facebook is ‘dead and buried’

Is that parroting dead?

(Credit: Chris Matyszczyk/CNET)

We come here not to praise it, but to bury it.

This seemed to be the attitude of teen respondents in a study that probed their deeper feelings about society’s most important subject: Facebook.

This study was part of a larger piece of research funded by the European Union. It revealed that there was an increasing disunion between teens and the now slightly wrinkly social network.

In a blog post that reads as less of a lament than a tortured eulogy, Daniel Miller, professor of Material Culture at University College, London used these words: “What we’ve learned from working with 16-18 year olds in the UK is that Facebook is not just on the slide, it is basically dead and buried.”

What could be the problem? Could this be an example similar to research earlier this year that described Facebook as “old” in the eyes of the fresh-faced and feckless?

The word professor Miller used to encapsulate these teens’ feelings was “embarrassed.” Yes, it appears that Facebook has reached the level of sheer shame.

The psychology has changed. Where once it would be teens rushing to Facebook to cha… [Read more]