14 DAY TRIAL // It was bound to happen eventually and now it seems that the younger users are starting to leave social networking sites, at least in the UK. With hundreds of millions of users and with everyone from their grandmother to their teachers now using social networking, it's no wonder that it's becoming a less compelling place for the 15- to 24-year-olds. According to the UK's Guardian, the percentage of young people with a profile on a social network has dropped to 50 percent compared to 55 percent in 2008.
Based on a study from UK's media regulatory body, the Office of Communications (Ofcom), teens and young adults aren't just leaving one social network for another, like the natural exodus from Friendster to MySpace and then from MySpace to Facebook; they're leaving social networking altogether. But, while the number of 15- to 24-year-olds using social networks has dropped 5 percent, the number of 25- to 34-year-olds has actually risen 6 percent, from 40 percent in 2008 to 46 percent this year.
On the whole, 30 percent of UK adults have a social networking account, up from 21 percent in 2007 when Ofcom first started measuring the figure. Among those who actually use the Internet the percentage is, of course, even higher, with half of them having a profile on Facebook alone while spending more time on the social network as well, six hours per month up from four hours last year.
While other regions may not see a drop in the number of young users – in the US the number is actually up – the fact remains that the average age of the social networking user is rising worldwide as the older generations move online in mass. Still, the trend may extend to other regions as well and it would be interesting to see where the younger generations, usually the early adopters of any new social outlet, will move to next, as it's clear that they aren't switching to Twitter.