On July 8, Media Bistro reported stats from iStategyLabs for Facebook.

The report says that there have been rumors that “younger users are being alienated by their parents joining the service. And this data seems to prove it.”

All jokes aside, my grad school stats text “How To Lie and Cheat with Statistics” seems apropos here. At the very least, this is opinion-bending—at its worst, it is faulty analysis and logic.

Media Bistro chose to headline this article, “Next for Facebook: Early Bird Specials?” While my initial response is some sort of primal scream, this really is “everything old is new again.”

Apparently Facebook’s key advertising demographic is age 18-24. That demo is now outpaced by 25-34 (60.8% growth) year olds and 35-54 (190.2% growth) year olds, and then there is the dreaded 513.7% growth in the 55+ demo.

“That puts a damper on Facebook’s 70.8% overall growth, which looks good on its face but doesn’t bode well for advertising.” (The site also experienced 142.4% growth in Atlanta, but we aren’t blaming the South for its demise!) [Read more →]