To think facebook is dying out?

I kind of miss the old days of 2008 when real people used to post random updates of their lives on fb. I am quite nosy and would still enjoy that! It seems quite quaint now doesn’t it?
The only people who do that now are influencers (eg people selling stuff) and people older than 70.

I did like the social aspect of keeping up with friends who were across the country/world. However I would never post a status on there now! I occasionally post pictures on insta with an emoji caption which gets shared to my fb but never anything more than that. Just seems a bit old fashioned but I do miss keeping up with people in that way.

Enshittification

It's officially out down to the "shitification" of social media - when the constant barrage of marketing put people off using the platform. Instagram is going the same way.

I only use Facebook. I'm on Twitter to follow some people but don't post. I don't use any other social media as Facebook is a big enough waste of my time!

I agree it’s definitely declining. Young people don’t use it. But as others have said it’s really useful for some things. Community pages and information. Certain groups etc.

I don’t post anything on it anymore like a lot of people.

I keep meaning to do a cull of ‘friends’ on there too. It feels quite intrusive to see posts (not that there are many these days) from people I don’t and won’t interact with in real life anymore. We lived overseas so I have friends from then but we are never likely to meet up. Not everyone from then but some for sure. Mums from when DS was in nursery in another country. He’s now 22!

I still use it for certain things, primarily local groups. But my use of it has dwindled massively. At various points in my life it has been one of my primary tools for contact, particularly when I lived abroad for a few years.

Now I look at it (outside of specific circumstances) maybe once a fortnight and I have only posted three times this year.

For me it’s mainly irritation at the takeover by sponsored content and the way the algorithms aggressively push me to read everything on a topic I may have read about once. When Sinead O’Connor died I read maybe one post about her and it was pushing clickbait shite about her at me for weeks. I don’t want or have the time to read everything written about Sinead O’Connor. Another example of algorithms being heavy handed and pissing users off with lack of nuance.

I also just think it’s had its time. It’s an older platform (by social media standards), the kids find it embarrassing the main generation it’s pitched at is increasingly anxious about screen addiction and data protection issues etc and it’s going to struggle to stay relevant.

I use it for local community and interest groups. I never notice posts from friends because there are so many suggested or sponsored posts that it doesn't feel at all personal any more. I just look at my notifications these days and don't scroll down very far. I certainly don't post other than in a few groups.

Agree with most other pps. Too many ads, sponsored posts and suggested posts that just aren't relevant to my life in any way whatsoever. I use it for local traffic info and news and a couple of groups I'm in. I'll get tagged in things occasionally when I'm out somewhere but don't post a lot myself. Much prefer instagram. Young people pretty much don't use it at all so it doesn't have a long term future, although no doubt there'll be something along to replace it.

I don’t post anything on my own page anymore but I belong to a number of health groups and they are very, very active so people are still using Facebook, just in different ways. Some of the health issues I have are very rare and complex and it’s a great way to connect with others with the same condition. Other media platforms don’t work as well for that sort of thing.

In my 20s I used to quite regularly post lighthearted updates about things I’d been up to. Then I moved into my 30s and that changed for a number of reasons. Firstly I had children and didn’t feel comfortable putting lots of stuff out there about them. There was a lot more publicity around about how that may not be very wise. It also started to feel a bit odd broadcasting things en masse to people, including a quite a number I hadn’t seen for years and/or never knew that well in the first place (yet I didn’t actually want to unfriend them as didn’t wish them badly). Did Sam from my old statistics seminar group really need to know my baby just tried avocado for the first time? What if she longed for children herself but couldn’t or wasn’t in a place to have them?

Then the increase in ads - and often quite unpleasant and aggressive ones (e.g. life insurance preying on one’s particular age) - started to drive me mad. Plus some people started using it to push their political views. I could go on. There were a lot of reasons combined. I changed but FB changed too.

I don't post updates any more, haven't for years - Covid lockdown #1 was about the last time as "memories" keeps reminding me! Even the local community pages are now just full of people selling stuff. But I do use a lot of support groups on there for my child's disability, as it's a relatively new diagnosis and other people's experience is really helpful.

My child has TikTok but tells me facebook is "for old people".

Strange you say this...I posted this a couple of weeks ago on there
Dear Facebook, every other thing on my feed is an add. Why, I haven't got low testosterone, I don't want to go to California, I definitely don't live in Wales....if you are going to market to me please be professional and use the data I give you..so advertise..
1 cheap cider
2 football
3 cider
4 sex and drugs and rock and roll
5 1980s films
6 Elvis
7 cider
8 1950s music
9 cider
10 oh and cider

It's not difficult to run an ad campaign... please just do it right

I think all products come to an end sooner or later - and the fact that Meta now exists and is spending reasearch money the way it is, recognises that Facebook as was, only has a finite future.

Adapt or die.

I agree that social media, in general, is going through the start of another shift. It's been around long enough to no longer be that novel and for scientific studies about its impact (plus real world experience of its impact) to come out and that will change how governments handle it or how people feel about it.

I look at it but I rarely post anything, I don't think I've posted for around a year. I simply don't feel that I want to share things in that way anymore. My feed is filled with reels and Tik Tok stuff and I'm not interested in that. I am in a couple of groups which are useful.
My eldest son has deleted all his visible social media content and I think he only uses it for messaging. He didn't want a public profile when he started applying for jobs, apart from LinkedIn. He's only in his early 20s.

I only use it to keep track of useful local community groups/what is happening in our small town and to sell stuff on Marketplace.

I have never used it to share personal stuff.

I got rid of it about 8 years ago. I’d rather speak to people irl. If I don’t see the people irl I don’t really care what they are up to. And if I see the people irl there is nothing to talk about if you’ve already read everything on SM.
The thing that made me leave it was running into 2 people irl that I hadn’t seen for almost 20 years since school. They were asking me up to date things about my life and I realised it was because of Facebook. It freaked me out a bit and made me realise how ridiculous it all was.

I got rid about 3 years ago (deactivated it so still can log on for photos etc people have sent me or tagged me in of DS but to be fair I haven’t ever logged back in.)

I have Twitter as it’s a good source of news / world events around more niche topics.

I think it soared in popularity in lockdown and then it just became really annoying with people over sharing (and blatantly lying about how great their lives where), I had to get rid as it irritated the shit out of me.

The community groups are incredibly useful.

I moved to a new area a few months ago and they've been great to help me find out what is going on.

Keeping up with friends - less so.

I still check it every few hours and shamefully I even end up clicking on some of the suggested pages which are often about films and stuff I’m very interested in (which it clearly knows by now). However, apart from a few regular posts from a handful of friends, I don’t see anything from people I actually know. I’m guessing eventually it will just end up one giant toxic Spotted: Local site.

I deleted my account about 4 years ago now. The only thing I miss is that it's harder to know what's going on locally now as a lot of groups just use Facebook. It'll be gone in the UK soon i reckon - they killed it with all the ads.

I was told by my friends son in his 20s that facebook is for over 50s, and I have to agree 😂😂 I feel like it's the generation above me making the odd embarrassing post and ads. I was always so happy my mum never had Facebook and feel sorry for some people seeing how their mums post on there sometimes aswell. I'm not on there anymore either, I think it's dying, yes.

Yes I hardly go on it now and can’t remember the last time I posted anything. It’s boring really.

Agree with a lot of others - great for groups and local info but not for anything else anymore - it seems so 2009 to be posting about your dog walk these days 🤣

The more mine becomes clogged up with adverts the less I go on it . My interest groups are useful if I need questions answered .

One thing I bloomin hate are all these daily affirmation posts that certain friends post .