It's Official: Most American Adults Use Facebook

Not that this is a surprise, but the official announcement deserves some notice. Given that the majority of those using it are over 35, does this signal the end of the Facebook phenomenon? How many people under 21 want to embrace something their mom thinks is cool? Nicholas Jackson reports in The Atlantic:

"Some users create profiles and then deactive for privacy reasons or because they found the experience to be unsatisfying. But most people stick around. It's impossible now to write off Facebook as a fad or as just a thing that college kids use to procrastinate.

According to a new survey conducted by Edison Research, a market research and exit polling firm, 51 percent of all American adults age 12 and over have profiles on Facebook. "We have been tracking the growth of Facebook since 2008, and have watched it go from 8% usage just three years ago, to 51% today," Edison's Tom Webster wrote on the firm's website. (Emphasis is original.)

The complete results from Edison's most recent survey, which is based on a sample of 2,020 persons over the age of 12, will be presented through a webinar on April 5. "In our presentation," Webster wrote, "you will also see the remarkable year-over-year growth of Facebook users especially among people over age 35, trends on frequency of usage, and the uptake of social networking on mobile phones."