'Facebook is for parents'

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) - It was a simple question posed by one of my colleagues.

"Who here uses Facebook?"

A smattering of hands rose out of a crowd of more than 30 teens, who were taking a tour of our station. I was a little taken aback. I'm familiar with all the predictions of the social giants' impending doom (most of which have proven to be about as accurate as the Mayans and Nostrodomus) but here was the unabashed group opinion of the future of Facebook, and it wasn't pretty.

Those "kids" are the ones who are supposed to be "Facebooking" uncontrollably in wild, thumb-flying frenzies of youthful zest.

Not.

"Facebook is for parents," one in the group told me without reservation or intended irony.

But it wasn't just a commentary on where social networking is going; it was personal. It immediately made me realize that I was old. No. I was ancient, because to this group of college-bound teens, 28-year-old Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of FB, is old.

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"So what are you using?" I asked. "Vine" came an answer from several of the teens.

There seemed to be an unspoken consensus on the answer.

Another offered "Snapchat," but was greeted with an immediate dismissal by another student, "nobody uses 'Snapchat' anymore."

The original student sheepishly agreed -- "I know, I still kind of like it," she said under her breath, as if the admission could cost her an undetermined percentage of coolness.  

Keep in mind, I didn't know that "Snapchat" had even arrived at some point, let alone it was considered passe'. But it served to illustrate the shelf life of so many of the apps/networking/chatting/sharing programs that young people are using these days. And it's not long. You could liken them to digital supernovas -- a flash of brilliance, taking over everything, only to be ultimately consumed by their own weight. Until they shrink down into the pinnacle of white dwarfs and examples of dead social netwoks -- like Myspace.  

"So what do you check when you get up in the morning?" I asked. "Instagram first," said a female student, "because I like pictures. Then Twitter and…" She listed several other apps that I can't remember and didn't recognize. But Facebook wasn't even in the equation.  

On the flipside, it does show the staying power of Facebook in the face (pun intended) of increasing competion and expected obsolecence. But the usefulness of the network to these teens is more like a Social Security card. Everyone has one. But you don't trot it out at dinner to impress your guests. You use it as proof for employment or to fill out a loan for a car. And that seems to be where Facebook is headed with the next generation -- something everyone has, but they only use as a password or login for another unrelated program.

It could be argued that this is just an example of youthful rebellion. As soon as they realized their parents were on Facebook, it became so "uncool" the kids in this group just reflexively dropped it. Eventually they'll recognize its merits and return to Facebook when they're young adults who possess something businesses refer to as "expendable income."

But that is a quite a gamble for any corporation, let alone one that has already been greeted with skepticism.

(At this writing, Facebook's stock was down, hovering between $26 and $27 a share).

The vultures certainly aren't circling Facebook, but if its future and renewal are based on each ensuing generation picking it up, then this unexpected survey would be anecdotal evidence to the contrary.

Eventually though, most of those "kids" will have kids. They'll be parents. And it doesn't matter what they do online, it almost certainly won't be cool. At least not to the teens of the world.

So what do you think?