The whiff of Death around Facebook & Twitter

If I inhale deeply, I think I catch the smell of death gathering around Facebook & Twitter.

Don't get me wrong, they both will continue to be around (and big, and over-hyped in the media) for quite a while. I just think they are both pulling into the turning lane of the same exit ramp that MySpace followed 2 years ago.

Why?
1. "The cool kids aren't doing it". When I talk to my students, the general impression is that none of them use Facebook or Twitter. LimeWire & YouTube are where their interests lie. If they want to communicate with someone, they simply text. There just isn't the interest level - they are young, so they aren't rekindling long-lost high school friendships (they haven't lost them yet).
2. "Old People have taken over". People like my wife and I joined this summer. Statistics show the average age of users in Facebook is much higher than MySpace. The young generation doesn't want to hang out in the same place that their parents do, so they are drifting away even more. If parents are there, the kids lose the ability to express themselves the way they want to, so there is no need to bother. Adding to that...
3. "It is an advertising thing now". Both services have "Jumped the Shark" and gone mainstream - alienating the core user base. Big media, movie stars, singers, and athletes have taken over the most-followed. So? Now, what is the difference between the sandboxes that Twitter & Facebook have created & the rest of the web? CNN is big in all 3, and sharing the same info in all 3.
4. "What is the point?". That is my question. I joined Facebook this summer. I have deleted most of the "friends" that I had b/c they either weren't posting, or posting innane stuff, or trying to drag me into Mafia Wars. Plus, call me a jerk if you must, but if the people from high school & I didn't keep in touch/reconnect in the last 20 years, why start now?!? I keep up with a small handful of distant relatives - my friend list is less than a dozen now. Also, I type too slow for Twitter.

Both services have uses, filing niches like creating communities around TV shows & such, but I think the decline in large-scale usage is about to begin. Just look at the number of articles about each in the news lately - they are declining from what I can tell.

My advice to both: Enjoy it while it lasts, and sell to Yahoo! While you still have a chance.