Farewell to Facebook?

David Mullen has a good piece over at Communications Catalyst about a possible impending exodus of teenagers and twenty-somethings from Facebook. They're leaving, he says, because their parents and older relatives have joined Facebook, making it a less cool space to overshare in. But I think he pinpoints something that's been a trend in media, and what I'd bet will be a trend in social networking as well: niches.

One reason Government Executive works as a business model is because we provide an outlet for people to get information about something extremely specific. You want information about your pay and benefits? Here we are. General interest magazines have struggled, recently. The New Yorker's seen big drops in revenue, for example. And that's in part because while people like publications that take on a fairly random assortment of topics, they need news on the things that affect their careers.

On Facebook, it can be entertaining to reconnect with a lot of people. It can be amusing to be given "gifts," or to see what someone you haven't talked to in ten years is up to. But none of us really need the connectivity that Facebook provides. What folks do need is sites that let them network with people who are in their career fields, who are discussing issues relevant to their jobs. That's one of the reasons GovLoop is so successful. It's got all the connectivity features of Facebook (minus the ability to throw sheep at people, I guess), but it's targeted in terms of who you can connect to.