Facebook isn’t cool anymore and probably never will be again. That’s what CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted in an interview with The Atlantic this week.
People assume that we’re trying to be cool. It’s never been my goal. I’m the least cool person there is! We’re almost 10 years old so we’re definitely not a niche thing any more so that kind of angle for coolness is done for us.
In the past, Zuckerberg has pushed back against the notion that Facebook no longer appeals to young people and that their parents are more inclined to use the social media network. In a recent conference call with investors, Zuckerberg maintained that Facebook was still very popular with kids:
One specific demographic I want to address is U.S. teens. There’s been a lot of speculation and reporting that fewer teens are using Facebook, but based on our data that just isn’t true. It’s difficult to measure this perfectly since some young people lie about their age, but based on the best data we have we believe that we are close to fully penetrated in the U.S. teen demographic for a while and the number of teens using Facebook on both a daily and monthly basis has been steady over the past year and a half. Teens also remain really highly engaged using Facebook. Now it’s also worth mentioning that these stats are for Facebook only. Instagram is growing quickly as well. So if you combine the two services together, we believe our engagement and share of time spent are likely growing quickly throughout the world.
One doesn’t need a Pew Research study to show that younger users see Facebook as a thing of the past. Just ask your own teenager. The last thing they want to do is hang out on Facebook. After all, that’s where their parents are.