Unpredictable. Unfocused. Just like life.

The college student demographic is a powerful one. They have cash to spend and their purchases are primarily driven by word of mouth from their friends. Facebook was an ideal mechanism to share their lives with their friends, and a great channel for word of mouth. And the high attention that demographic gave to Facebook made it a very valuable property.

But when Facebook becomes inundated with adults - like your mom and dad - then it begins to lose favor with that younger demographic. And kids certainly don't want to be on the same network as their parents. What could be further from cool? Do you really want your parents to see what you and your friends are doing on Facebook? And mom and dad, would you have enjoyed your parents reading your diary twenty years ago?

Those adults aren't driven to shop and make purchases in the same way either. Instead of using Facebook as a way to communicate with friends, they subscribe to the sudden explosion of Facebook applications to send BoozeMail, or to send werewolf, vampire, or zombie invitations. My Facebook page is awash in pointless notifications; time wasters that don't drive communications or commerce.

So what do college students think about Facebook now? Focus groups at Columbia Records [Times Select, from New York Times Magazine] produced comments like this:

They told us that MySpace is over, it's just not cool anymore; Facebook is still cool, but that might not last much longer; and the biggest thing in their life is word of mouth. That's how they hear about music, bands, everything.''

As Geoff Moore would say, Facebook is now seeing the late adopters, a sure sign of a mature product. Does that mean that Facebook is almost over?