A surprising article has been published in today's issue of the UK newspaper The Independent. According to the article, the media regulator Ofcom have done some research and have found that growing numbers of teenagers are turning their backs on social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook. The statistics found that among the fifteen to twenty-four age group, those with a profile have fallen five percentage points from the end of march last year, to fifty percent this year.
According to Ofcom's research, despite social networking becoming less popular for the young, there has been a considerable boost in its popularity for the slightly older generations. Britons aged between thirty-five and fifty-four seem to have embraced the idea of social networking. Perhaps it's the fear of parents and other older family members joining up which is scaring the teenagers away?
The above older age group has proved to be the fastest growing according to the research with thirty five per cent claiming an account. Ofcom have said that social networking had been one of the "fastest moving stories in digital communications in the past four years."
Furthermore, according to Ofcom's research, Facebook does still seem to be the dominant social networking website in the UK, rising seventy-three per cent to hit a monthly audience of nineteen million unique people. Rivals such as Bebo have become a little less popular, perhaps in Facebook's shadow, shunting seventeen per cent lower, whilst MySpace remains to have a little growth.
Finally, the brilliant success of Twitter has not gone unnoticed by the researchers at Ofcom. Stating that it has grown from 150,000 unique users in May last year, to 2.6 million this year.
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