• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, August 16, 2011

Call it the Facebook fatigue factor. In some of the social network's biggest markets, including the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom, new research from GlobalWebIndex shows sharp declines in usage for activities such as status updates, sharing content, messaging and installing apps. 

"Time has wearied users of Facebook," the researchers found. That said, the report also indicated that total worldwide usage continues to increase, due to growth in the emerging markets. Produced by Trendstream, GWI interviewed close to 100,000 individuals in 27 different markets in June and July.

The report found that messaging friends via the U.S. Facebook platform was down 15% last month compared to June. And the proportion of users participating in the "joined a group" activity was down 10% in the same period. "The trend is even more pronounced among U.S. college educated 20somethings, the original users of the platform," the report stated.

By contrast, total active usage of all social network sites has risen significantly worldwide in all age groups, GWI found. For example, the survey found that usage was 26% higher among persons ages 16 to 24 and up 35% among those ages 35 to 44.

Meanwhile, GWI reports that different geographic and economic markets are using the Web in different ways.

Generally, emerging markets such as Malaysia and Indonesia are driving the growth of social networks, while consumers in more mature markets such as the U.S. and the U.K. are focusing more on e-commerce. Some markets, such as Singapore and Turkey, use the Web significantly for both, but tend to skew slightly one way or the other.