WIRED: Facebook is dead?

New Study: Teen are marching to a new beat on social media.

According to WIRED Staff Writer Ryan Tate, "Facebook Is 'Dead and Buried' to Teens, and That's Just Fine For Facebook." Ryan cites anthropologist Daniel Miller, who has been studying Britain's teens, ages 16- to 18-years old. Miller reportedly conducted a 15-month-long ethnographic study of social media in eight countries.

What Miller allegedly discovered was that Facebook has become "uncool" to teens because it has become so widely accepted by parents and older Americans, as a means of keeping in touch with relatives and the like.

Of course, any company that is publicly traded ceases being considered "rogue" or "inside" by anyone. And, young people enjoy many things, prominently social media among them, that are their own; less a part of the cultural mainstream as they are part of the teen-age 'scene,' if you will.

On Social Media Bulldog, Staff Writer Ben Baggett is quick to come to Facebook's defense, saying that even though teen usage of Facebook is on the decline by teens, the number of them using Facebook still amounts to "total penetration" by that demographic. Baggett is asking the question: "Facebook is no longer the fashionable network for teens, yet they are still using the service. Why?"

Why, indeed.

Other social media outlets have been noted by Baggett as realizing increases in usage as Facebook slowly slips from the mantle of top 'teen destination.' Those outlets include: Pinterest, which has increased 6 percent; Twitter, which is 2 percent more popular; Instagram, which is 4 percent more popular; and LinkedIn, which is also 2 percent more popular.

While the teeny bopper bunch may be snubbing their nose to Facebook in droves, Baggett quoted a Pew study that stated usage by 20-24 year olds has also dropped, from 63 percent to 52 percent. Oh no, what will become of the world should Facebook not be popular!? OMG what will my BFF do? No more ROTFL or TTYL on Facebook-- ah, the good old days

Facebook is a good way to keep in touch with friends and family who are living far away, though. And, proving that Facebook has now become the 'anti-cool,' use of the service by those in the 35-44 age group has steadily increased over the past year.

Still, teens should bang the drum slowly and wear their black armbands, as their once-beloved social media hub is now crawling with middle-aged people who are trying to keep in touch with one another, as well as their kids and other family. How could it have happened? Well, I suppose I could offer the opinion that, at some point, everything and everyone grows up if they want to stick around for a long time.

More than any other society on this planet, Americans despise middle- and old-age, and people who fit into those categories too. Though many people are just as competent, or even more so, as when they were 25 or 35, still so many doors slam in the face of older workers.

In my experience, older people are 'allowed' to mop up and clean, empty this or that, help by cleaning bedpans or 'greeting' people in stores -- but many professional positions actually become barred to them as those gray or silver hairs start collecting along their sideburns and temple.

So it is only natural that when Facebook started growing its own gray hairs, it too was pushed to that part of the bus reserved for seniors set upon masticating the Denny's 'early bird special' and catching a nice, slow walk around the mall.