“‘Facebook is stupid and for old people,’ my 12 year old daughter texted me yesterday after FaceBook offered to purchase Instagram. If you have teenage or pre-teen girls or boys, this demonstrative behavior isn’t anything new. What I didn’t fully understand at the time is what a firestorm the acquisition set off in the community,” Patrick Moorhead writes for Tech.pinions. “Of deeper and longer-term significance, however, was the spotlight my daughter’s text to me shined upon the newest and most natural trend in social media; verticalization or specialization, which will reshape social media as we know it today.”
“As I probed to better understand what my daughter meant and how she felt by her text to me, she explained that with Facebook owning Instagram, it would ruin its entire purpose,” Moorhead writes. “Probing further, she feared that Facebook, because it’s for ‘old people,’ would ‘change Instagram.’ Taking this offline, she explained a few fears. For her, Instagram is a world for her and her friends in her grade that was protected from Facebook gawkers and lurkers. Her thinking was that by Facebook owning Instagram, those gawkers and lurkers would invade her and her young friend’s world. Mark Zuckerberg promises a standalone Instagram, but will, of course, import all the pictures in their context and metadata, to be monetized like everything else is in the Facebook network. My daughter wasn’t alone in her fears.”
Read more in the full article here.
Related article:
Facbook buys Instagram for $1 billion in cash and stock – April 9, 2012
You know why Old People think Facebook is stupid – they need to use a ouija board to find there old friends.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
as an old person i have always thought Facebook was stupid and for young people.
same here.
but as HTML5 Gordon mentioned below.. consider the source (12 year old girl)
At least old people know how to spell “their”. (And also, by the way, ‘lose’.)
+1 “loose” for “lose” makes me especially crazy.
Hey (C)Ryan:
It’s “their” not “there”.
Go back to school and learn something because I refuse to have a battle of wits with an unarmed person.
Hey (C)Ryan.
It’s “their” not “there”.
I refuse to have a battle of wits with an unarmed person.
You need to go back to school or finish school and learn our language. If you don’t the world will chew you up and spit you out.
To a 6 year-old a 12 year-old is “old”. We’re all older than someone and soon you will realize there will be more people younger than you than older than you. You’ll see. You can’t stop it. No one can.
That is the best headline I have ever read!
Are most social networking NOT just arenas where people shamelessly self boast lies of false friendships and connections – like who really has and can spend the time to converse and fallow daily the lives of over 20 people?
Linkedin is as stupid as the rest – yet it started out with a fairly good reason to connect and build a network that was job related. It too has evolved into more a commercial venture of the power people.
Just not interested thx.
Well its a headline not quiet right. STUPID yes.
for OLD PEOPLE now thats not right.
I think people who are over 40 don’t care much for FB.
And other social Networks may have 10 to 30 age users.
Guess i just don’t give a hoot.
True, but even a 30 year old is “old people” to a 12 year old. You have to consider the source.
NO, they are just not early adopters. MOre and more parents and grandparents are flocking to social media to stay connected to their families. Hence kids not thinking it’s cool anymore. Most kids have bogus named accounts for using it without the prying eyes of parents. The kids are ready for something new. Facebook’s growth is over..
She’s right of course…
but then Instagram is even MORE stupid and for babies!
fb is just plain stupid. I’m 57 and I don’t get it. I guess I’m not old enough.
I agree – I have no use for it and I guess 40 is not old or young enough – what is the age that people think old starts? 25?
It’s all relative. The daughter in this story was 12. For her “old” is anyone over 18.
I have found that it remains about 10 years hence for me. Been that way for over 50 years.
When I hear “older” folks say things like, “I don’t get it” when referencing Facebook, Twitter, etc., I cringe at the absurdity. What is so difficult to understand about a tool for communication? Better yet, a form of communication that allows instant sharing of music, photos, files, etc. You had snail mail, telephones… I’m willing to bet that most adults have used email. Look, I have traveled around the world, made many international friends, and, yes, I call them on the phone, too. But I can’t go to Indonesia, Japan, Hong Kong, London, Jamaica, even other states on the other side of the US, etc. any time I want – I have a life. Facebook allows me and millions of others to engage (Yes, I know what you’re going to say, it’s not the same as being there in-person, but didn’t I already address that?) in a simple-but-effective way. Really, how is it so different than a phone? I also use skype, email, the cloud for sharing. And, when I can, I see people in person; I’m socially healthy. I wonder if people acted so asinine when the phone was invented… Get over the pseudo-arrogance that somehow puts you above Facebook. It’s a wonderful form of communication for all ages. I am in my 40s and have friends and family of all ages on Facebook – it allows me to more regularly keep up. How is that so hard to understand? I think it’s your loss if you don’t utilize everything tech has to offer to communicate with friends and family. Contrary to media hype, Facebook isn’t the wild west – I pick and choose who I want to communicate with and have never gotten any spam.
Sure, there are issues, such as privacy (overhyped, to say the least), in the tech realm, but it’s in its infancy. Give it a chance.
you sure like hyphens.
…and they are so twentieth century. Pssh!
They’re mostly en dashes. Although, they should be em dashes.
Lol hillarious.
I guess I’d rather interact with people directly with conversation whether in person, or phone, facetime, ichat. And then there’s just good old email and text.
Every friend, relative etc that has my email address thinks that I’m interested on what they are putting on some wall somewhere and my inbox gets clogged up with notices. I don’t go to the links because, for one, I don’t care, and secondly I don’t have an account. I’m reluctant to unsubscribe since I don’t want to offend but methinks I will.
Maybe read some of the studies linking fb to narcissism.
“a form of communication that allows instant sharing of music, photos, files, etc” – that is called the internet. Facebook is just one website that somehow seems to have made the sheeple think it is providing something no-one else does. As soon as the users realize that they are what matters, perhaps they will stop allowing themselves to be used and guided by people who view them as “stupid fscks” in the words of FB’s founder.
Or maybe he is right…
Well said. I’m also over 50 and I regularly use FB. I live in Japan far from my family & friends. I am more ‘in touch’ with more people than I would be if FB never existed! And as far as old goes….. I have friends and family that are tens of years older AND younger than myself on my friends list.
Too long, I stopped reading after one line.
Funny, I’m 60 and use it all the time to stay connected with friends and relatives scattered across the country and the world. Like my sister in the Midwest, my first high school girl friend in Florida, and best buds from college in California, Colorado and Brazil. It is what you make it.
I have caused some hurt feelings by refusing to participate in games or share lame “inspirational” messages…
I don’t know any old people who like Facebook.
Unless you are a teenager, I think you have a different definition of what you consider ‘old’ and for tech/social media, teen is king.
When you were 12 years old, how old was an “old person”?
20+
Actually, the official rule is that the person is old if they are 20 years older than you. It applies to every age (all the way up to 80).
I never understood the appeal of Facebook. Twitter I get. I never Tweet but have feeds from news sites and blogs I like.
Same here, I have a Twitter account that I have locked. zero followers, zero tweets. but I follow a bunch of people to keep up on stuff.
Basically a RSS reader..
That’s odd, because I understand the appeal of Facebook, even if I only use it occasionally, but I don’t understand Twitter at all. Not being facetious. 140-character updates when I can just go to the site and read the full story? That’s like being given a small taste when I want to eat a full meal.
I’m not young enough to know everything.
Well I’m old enough to have forgotten everything.
Facebook is for women!
That’s about as silly as saying Apple products are for women and gay men.
Gurl! That sounds FABULOUS!
Well, Apple products are FAHbulos!
Facebook is…
FB is for anyone who values it, and for everyone else there are other choices, including blogs like this one. It’s all online chatter so really, what’s the difference other than branding?
This is Mac news???
While a 12 year old may not be the most eloquent speaker, I appreciate the line about ‘a world for her and her friends in her grade that was protected from Facebook gawkers and lurkers’ as I like Instagram’s singular purpose to share photos both fun an artistic in a separate social network. I’m not afraid of gawkers and lurkers but Instagram was a one trick pony and, while that is usually bad, I found it to be a great part of it. And they never claim ownership of anything. Their agreements can be read in a minute or two and I think I’d be hard pressed to find anything objectionable.
If people continue to think that you can have a service for free, for ever, they are naive. Hence the young kids.
If something is a sitting goose or golden egg, someone is going to take it and turn in into $$. It’s just a fact.
An interesting development would be, if a government produced a commercial free social network that was, free to everyone, performed a public means of communication, and benefited society.
Nah, anti gov politicos wouldn’t want that. There’s power in chaos.
Why does Apple even bother integrating with facebook? Might as well integrate more with Flash.
If Facebook is stupid, then thank old people. If Facebook is for old people? Well, personally, it would have a lot more appeal decades ago when I was a teenager.
I’m 58, and I use Fb all the time for keeping up to date with friends spread all over the UK, and any number of bands who’ve migrated away from MySpace since it crashed and burned.
I’m no genius, and I have no problems with Fb, so maybe those commenting here who do are the really terminally stupid ones…
Give all your private information and images to FB is the problem, you can use FB anyway you like but it’s clear your not fully versed in the “Fine Print” of the terms of service, look at it sometime, you will be shocked.
And now with company’s asking employees to turn over all social network addresses and then many folks being terminated for posting on a public blog like FB is another concern.
I can never see anyone being so short sighted as to post private information on a social blog for all to see, in this day and age it’s irresponsible, but then all the information FB gets from each user as to tastes and location also falls into that category.
You made your choice, be prepared for more then you bargained for, it may just bite you.
yep.
Just remember folks, EVERYTHING you say on FB, private or public, IS ALLOWED in court…. and no, you really have no say in the matter. Lawyers specialize in social media now.. both for and against corporate interests.
Glad to hear FB works for you. Personally speaking, I prefer personal contact. Terminally stupid ones? Simply more negative comments backed by zero facts.
Facebook is stupid for those who don’t particularly care to know developments in other peoples lives. Like me. Who cares if so and so had a baby and what it weighs and its name and how many poops it has made so far….yawn. If I was THAT important in their lives, they would let me know. As such, people are too frikken lazy to let epople know. They put it on facebook and let the people do the work to find this crap out. No thanks. Bah humbug 🙂
But for people who like it, so be it. You don’t have to understand it.
By the way, for really old people…
You have trouble finding friends on FB…because they are dead
or
You have trouble gettng a response from friends on FB…because they are dead.
Don’t you have to be 13 or older to use Facebook? So what is a 12-year old (or any pre-teen) doing on Facebook?
12 – 18 year olds show us where the puck is going. Good to pay attention. FB, if it continues to exist, will look vastly different in 5 years.
you dunno what the puck you’re talkin’ about..12 year olds don’t have any money or sense.
The only thing I ever used Facebook for was to get some extra space on dropbox.
Don’t you have to be 13 to be on Facebook anyways?
The 12 year old girl was using Instagram, not Facebook.
wrong. the preteen was using both, and thought that she was “safer” by separating her activities amongst separate social parasite companies.
Facebook is for stupid people, period. Age is irrelevant.
I’m not 12 and I’m not old, but I do not see any great value in FarceBook. There is not sh*t there that cannot be done better by other means.
Instagram is now officially FUBAR- FarceBook does not respect privacy of individuals or their IP. Unless the EULA has changed FarceBook owns the pix you post to FarceBook.
Instagram is now Cheez Wiz. Hope the founders enjoy the money for selling out the users who loved it. Now it will be whored out for advertising, marketing and all the rest.
Has anyone noticed how bad the Facebook UI is? It seems somehow very Windows like.