"I think Facebook is still very popular even though some people might be losing interest," said the 11th-grade student at Alameda Community Learning Center, a charter school in Alameda across the bay from San Francisco.

"There is no talk among my friends saying Facebook is for old people."

Facebook, born on a college campus a decade ago, has grown to 1.23 billion active users worldwide.

But as it prepares to celebrate its 10th anniversary, Facebook is now facing challenges in keeping its original base of young users as new social networks vie to be the coolest on the Internet.

A social networking trend set in motion by Facebook has been accelerated by soaring popularity of smartphones that let people share images, videos, thoughts or observations at any moment.

Hot young services such as Pinterest, Twitter and SnapChat have sparked concerns that Facebook is losing teens and may follow predecessor MySpace into social networking obscurity.

Facebook's demographics appear to be shifting as adults, even seniors, use the network to catch up with long-lost friends and stay connected to family and colleagues.

Princeton University student Susannah Sharpless said she and friends have stopped letting Facebook consume their lives.

"Everyone in my friend group went through this stage where we hated Facebook and deleted it," Sharpless told AFP.

"I was one of the first people to get it back. Slowly, everyone did."

Breaking from Facebook served as a detox period during which she and friends got a better handle on what was a daily habit, the college junior said.

AFP

Source: ZeeNews