So last month Facebook, MySpace and Bebo showed the first signs of slow down in the UK. This raised the, somewhat tedious, question of whether users are finally starting to get a bit bored of social networking…

On his blog, The Guardian’s Mark Sweney highlighted certain trends developing as the early mover social networking websites reach maturity (after just three years!) and asked the question: where exactly is the market heading?

He referenced Nielsen which was pointing at the huge growth potential in niche social networks catering to specific interests such as travel, business, or wealth, and also Comscore which had noted a similar rise in local language sites. And lo, yesterday saw the launch of German Facebook.

The big players in this field, it is reported, are now chasing after what they call the “granular layer” of readers in the regions and launching “hyper local papers” which are actually using content from websites based exclusively on a local postcode - see The Guardian's Local Heroes.

The insight here is that it is all about community - regional papers are also having to get ‘niche’ to survive as they increasingly compete with personalised web content. In a world where traditional social models are in decline the media, the heartbeat of the nation, is providing alternative ways for groups, not to mention friends and families, to share and celebrate their lives.