Anecdotally, I could have told you that Facebook was on its way out — teens are other young folks are moving away from it, choosing to stick with texting, Tumblr, or Twitter. But now Facebook itself admits it’s a problem.
That’s the thing about being a public company: You have to acknowledge your warts. In its annual 10K filing, the company wrote:
We believe that some of our users, particularly our younger users, are aware of and actively engaging with other products and services similar to, or a substitute for, Facebook.
But what about those 800 gadzillion users (or whatever the number is)? Well, “users” doesn’t mean they actually use Facebook — just that they have an account. Or more than one. (Thanks to my son’s Farmville obsession, I have five.)
And a new study from the Pew Internet & American Life Project — an organization that I’ve always loved — “Coming and Going on Facebook” found that a lot of folks are taking a “break” from Facebook, and that “One in five online adults (20%) say that they used Facebook in the past but no longer do so.” (But they’re still counted as users.)
Something to keep in mind.
