Are people still using Facebook?

[DroppedOff]

I came off it about five years ago. It was a relief at the time but I have lost touch with my cousins and a few people which is a shame. I was thinking I might reactivate my account. Are people using it as much these days?

It was opened up to the general public in 2006.

Even still, you’re not the first generation to use it.

But what about if they are now 37/38/ 39 years old? I’m in my early 40s and can remember all those forms of social media you mention. I had friends who are a few years younger than me who can also remember them. There is a huge difference between someone being 30 in 2025 to being 39 so you cannot completely write off a certain age group as not being able to access social media.
And if I remember correctly, not every household, regardless of age in the early days of the internet actually had access to the internet at all. I remember loads of people having to use the old style internet cafes that were around back then if they needed to use the internet because they didn’t own a PC and smart phones were not around so not all older generations had access to the internet to witness who did and didn’t use social media.

I was on usenet groups, which I guess one could term a form of social media, in 1993, when I was 30.

I look at FB quite a lot as there are a lot of community groups that post information but I rarely post anythng on it.

I do look at it but it's a lot of adverts and I don't really post. Actually none of my friends seem to either.

It was first launched in 2004, and went global later. That’s 20 years ago. If you are 30, you were 10. If you are 39, you were 19.

I still use it a bit, mainly for work but like to look back on my memories from when I used it more and had more interactions with people.

I do. My teen also does, as do his mates

I started using it when I moved to a new areas to find out what is going on locally. I also use it to follow issues I am interested in.

But social media was around for years before Facebook came along.

i am aware of that but some posters on here are writing off people who are now in their 30s as not being around. Some people who are in their late 30s were definitely around when MySpace etc was a thing and would have been in their teens when Facebook came along. They may not have been the first generation to use the earlier social media platforms but they were definitely using Facebook when it first came about.

But @Mumofnarnia they weren’t the youngest or first generation. That’s all anyone is saying.

Have I not just said that??

It reads like you are defending them being the first generation rather than just ‘A’ generation. Misunderstanding, maybe.

Not that long, surely? And not very widely used? I was online a lot from around 2002 onwards (when I was in uni) and my first social media was MySpace. There were chat rooms and forums but actual social media wasn't really a wide-spread thing until 2003/4-ish.

Clearly a misunderstanding as I have not said that anywhere. I think another poster did but not myself. All I have done is agree with posters who said that people now in their 30s were around when Facebook came along.
I also quoted another poster who was basically saying someone who is now 30 would have been 9 the time Facebook came about so people in their 30s were not on social media. That might be so for a 30 year old but not for a 38 or 39 year old who were definitely around when MySpace was a thing and also when Facebook came along.

I think widely used is at the crux of the disagreement over which generation first used social media. A previous poster mentioned being a beta tester in the 90s for a site. My mil is in her 50s and I can guarantee she wouldn't know what beta testing means let alone be one!

I think anyone using social media in the 90s was much more technically aware than the majority of their peers. If we are talking about the majority of a generation using social media then it would be the millenials which fits best.

I guess it depends how you're defining social media - I mean, I'd count forums like MN as social media, for example, and it's been around since 2000. There were plenty of other forums etc. around before then too.

I'm in my 60s and in general it is people my age who use it most.

I'm finding it increasingly irrelevant and am trying to wean myself off it altogether. Occasionally there's something I'm really glad I've seen but many of my friends (and I) have stopped posting much at all and most of what I see comes from three or four very prolific posters (other than all the adverts and general rubbish).

The most useful bits are the local community pages and other groups, I think.

Not many people I know post very often but I use it for groups and info. There are so many ads though now.

My 20 year old uses it for car related meet ups and I use it for local events and catch ups but I'm not in it daily.

I'm 60 this year so Gen X. We are definitely the last generation to have been entirely analogue for the first half of our lives, gradually moving over to all the tech in the second half of our lives. It's been extremely interesting and a bit sad really that many people younger than us have absolutely no clue as to what life was like before. My DC look at me with bafflement when I describe our childhoods and teenage years. I've really embraced all the tech though and loved Facebook at the start, posted loads like many friends did but honestly now I put very little on. Love seeing what friends are up to but not their dinner etc like it was about 15 yrs ago....

I use it as a diary. I like it when memories pop up.

I don’t really read through it anymore though- it’s all adverts.

@babiesinthesnowflakes

It’s funny to think that back in the day, it was totally normal to come back from holiday and put hundreds of your holiday photos on Facebook!

Some people still do. And if they're particularly stupid, they post photos on Facebook while they're still on holiday, (and their house is empty!) 🙄

These people walk among us! 😬

I deleted it at Christmas and don't miss it. Too full of ads and the news feed was just messy.