OMG! Number of UK text messages falls for first time. It's been GR8, 1DRFUL and often LOL, but OMG, the text message appears to have finally passed its prime. :( After two decades in which texting transformed the English language, turned reality show voting into a national event and earned billions for mobile operators, the number of messages sent in Britain fell for the first time last year.
As a new generation of smartphone owners turn to internet-based instant message services such as WhatsApp and Snapchat, research shows the volume of old-fashioned texts sent last year is estimated to have fallen by 7bn to 145bn. Accounting firm Deloitte's annual technology predictions report, released on Monday, forecasts the number will fall again this year to 140bn. Graduate job prospects declining, tracking of university students finds.
Britain's graduates face an increasingly challenging jobs market, with 40% failing to get graduate-calibre posts more than two years after leaving education, around twice the proportion of their peers a decade earlier, according to a study of recent ex-students' career paths.
Overall, the vaunted graduate salary premium, a key argument in persuading would-be students to rack up significant debt to pay for a university education, has declined by as much as 2% a year compared with average national earnings over the past 10 years, the Futuretrack survey found. The research has worrying implications for social mobility, finding that non-white graduates are significantly more likely to experience unemployment, while the chance of being in a non-graduate job rises for those whose parents do not have degrees.
Facebook 'dead and buried to teens', research finds. Facebook is 'dead and buried' to older teenagers, an extensive European study has found, as the key age group moves on to Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp and Snapchat.
Researching the Facebook use of 16-18 year olds in eight EU countries, the Global Social Media Impact Study found that as parents and older users saturate Facebook, its younger users are shifting to alternative platforms. "Facebook is not just on the slide - it is basically dead and buried," wrote Daniel Miller, lead anthropologist on the research team, who is professor of material culture of University College London.