To think Facebook has had it's day?

[Flippedouthere]

Been wondering this for a while and again today as I scroll through my feed and it's full of adverts, posts from pages I've liked and a few crap memes/inspirational quotes shared by the same handful of people. As always, very little in the way of actual posts from friends.

I joined Facebook over 10 years ago when I had small children - I now have teens, as do the majority of my approx 120 friends. While there was always some crap and attention seeking drama, I used to enjoy seeing people's news and updates. These days, most friends rarely post. I only post, on average, every couple of weeks as I'm now busy working and also don't feel very motivated to as Facebook is so boring! When I do post I usually get a fair amount of likes and comments, so people are clearly still going on there!

I do have Twitter & Instagram accounts but don't really bother with them and have no intention of starting now. Nor am I looking for a new SM platform (DD uses Snapchat - no thanks!).

I'll admit I do sometimes hanker for the days when the internet didn't exist and spare time was spent, reading, watching films, pursuing hobbies, getting stuff done! Maybe I'll go back to that and post ocassional Facebook updates to stay in touch!

Instagram still feels very different to me, despite being owned by Facebook. The adverts are less intrusive, it’s easier to control what appears in your feed, there are less conspiracy theories and tedious political rants, and the content is more interesting and original. If it becomes too like Facebook I will end up ditching it too and switching to something like VSCO (which I already use for editing but not for social media).

I only post, on average, every couple of weeks as I'm now busy working and also don't feel very motivated to as Facebook is so boring!

I think you have answered your own question.

My FB is a lively, funny, interesting place to hangout, and all my friends (and pages/groups) regularly post interesting and relevant stuff on there for me to enjoy. We share family stuff, funny stuff, real life stuff, work stuff.

You seem to think it is "other people's" responsibility to make your FB interesting. Maybe they are thinking the same about you?

I get a lot from FB. I had a massive cull of family/friends who were mainly people I barely knew and now only have about 20 who tend to be distant relatives/cousins etc that I'd never see or hear from otherwise.

My main reason for using is that the puppy we have came from an accidental breeder who set up a FB page for all the puppy owners. There are about 8 of us who all share photos and updates for the puppies,and we arrange meet ups etc. And I'm also member for some dog breed groups that is a really good way of answering questions, sharing problems etc and has saved me a small fortune at the vets. So my feed mainly consists of dog related stuff and I'm quite happy with that. I don't like any pages that aren't relevant to me and seem to have filtered out most of the crappy advertising.

I deleted my account. It was depressing realising my neighbours and sister were mindlessly sharing propaganda.

I still like fb but use group pages more than posting on my own page. So I'm on a few horse group pages, a local news page (the fastest place to get up-to-date traffic news & great to find out what's going on if it snows a lot), and some crafting groups. I like the groups because they aren't full of sponsored advert posts.
If something irritates me on fb it's easy to block people or hide posts.

I really don't get why people are so quick to slate it. It doesn't matter which social media platform you use they are all about the same thing, connecting with other people. There's boasting, vitriol, trolls, bullying, adverts etc on all the social media sites. Including this one.

No-one can make you feel bad about what size house you have, how much you spent on a handbag, what you had for dinner etc unless you already have some insecurities about those things. People who post for approval obviously have their own issues too.

All the sites have the potential to be breached so it makes no difference if you do Instagram, snapchat, Facebook, Linked in or any of the millions of others, as soon as you are on any of them then you are at the same risk of having your data out there and accessible to someone. That's a risk we all take to connect globally.

The internet is truly an amazing thing. The positives outweighs the negatives the majority of the time.

Personally I never put anything online that I am not prepared to share in real life but I know when I post the reaction I am looking for. My teenage sons use snapchat I think, anything else is for "old people" as far as they are concerned.

Had it for a couple of weeks years ago, realised I hated it and deleted it. Clearly I am ahead of the curve for once

I deleted Facebook in 2007. Never looked back!
Twitter I use daily however..

It’s definitely changed for me, and not for the better.

I hate that my feed has very little personal stuff and is mostly ads or posts from pages I follow. But I am guilty as I post far less than I used to so I guess it is inevitable. Drives me mad that posts don’t show in date order and some are missed.

Still go on and skim through daily though.

FB will die. I have a 16 year old who doesn't have FB at all - her friends are much more into Snapchat and Instagram. No doubt they too will become outdated when something else comes along.

I came off FB and no regrets. What finished it for me, if not for what others have said, it was awful stuff that kept being posted in order to freak people out... wont even say it but never felt so disturbed in my life. I couldnt take the risk of seeing anymore of that, because if I unfollowed one page, another page posted something like it. I also find alot of these social media things are just narracistic... ugh really glad I dont have it.

It depends how you use it and what kind of friends you have.

There are lots of positives, local selling groups, community information, specialist peer support eg SEN, breastfeeding etc that are not anonymous and therefore likely to descend into a bear pit

These ^^ are many of the reasons I use Facebook. I get to hear of loads of local events through it, and belong to several closed groups.

I don't have shallow and vain friends who post selfies or posts to get sympathy I know every FB friend in person.

I think the demographic has changed, and it is oldies like me who use it more than the young. DD uses Messenger, but usually interacts with her friends on Snapchat these days.

If you find it dull, maybe you should look at who you're friends with?

I'm friends with people I actually like. No, the posts aren't always full of moral purpose but it's not supposed to be used for that. Most of us share photos of our dogs/cats, new babies and holiday snaps.

There's no real negativity or drama on there at all. I use it regularly but the majority of my page is photos of my beagle!

I’ve definitely gone off FB and very rarely post anything or spend more than a few minutes looking at it each day. I like seeing photos of friends’/relatives’ children if I don’t see them in the flesh that often, I like being invited to events, and I’m a member of a book chat group so have had some great recommendations from the folks there.
I deactivated for 3 months last summer and didn’t miss it much, but did miss out on gigs/parties that I would have liked to go to so that’s my main reason for keeping it really.

I like FB. But I have been fairly ruthless with my friends list; I only have people who either I care about or who share the same interests/values as me. Mine was heading the same way as the OP. endless pics od dinners and the 'I am sitting in A&E' type drama, of course with 'PM me' if anyone asked what was wrong. So I shredded all those contacts and now really enjoy it/

I agree with alittleprivacy that the newsfeed is being killed off, especially with change after change to the algorithm where it's kinda impossible to just see things in chronological order or even just reliably and the sometimes creepy adverts, but the groups and, as others have said, using it to find information in the community or resources. The Menopause Support group among others have been a great lifeline for me.

I think those will probably eventually move somewhere else as well - just as many groups moved to facebook for ease of use and cost from meetup and other similar sites, but as of now, I don't think any of the other options work well for support groups or community resources, or much where it can be discussion based or local knowledge rather than image based like Instagram (which to me has a very awkward comment system) or Pinterest or even somewhat Twitter and Tumblr though those might be more argument/ideology based at this point.

My two children n both in their twenties have given up using Facebook, they say it is too boring. They both live abroad so I ask them to post pictures occasionally because their grandparents and other family members like to see them.
I belong to a lot of local history Facebook groups as I love old photographs. A. picture popped up of a VE Day celebrations and there was my dad at 12 years old enjoying the party with his brothers He had never seen that photo before so he was delighted with it.

If you find it dull, maybe you should look at who you're friends with? I'm friends with people I actually like.

I think this is missing the point. I’m friends with a great many interesting people, but for all sorts of reasons, they’re not the people who tend to post on FB these days, if they ever were. So the people who remain (in my case at least) tend to be those who are not that interesting. Who post the boring inspirational memes or whatever.

I think a lot of people are using fb in really different ways and so don't understand the draw for people who use it in a different way.

I only see what people have written on other people's timelines if we're mutual friends, and not always then (it depends on privacy settings). Most people i know have the security dialled up to 11 and then use secret groups too.

If you use fb in one browser, and then use the internet in a different browser - in stealth mode - then you don't get the tailored ads? not sure. I don't find it difficult to ignore the ads and I'm very fast on the mute/unfriend button if something bugs/annoys me so much that i don't want to see it.

I don't feel pressure to have family on there, though. That must be awkward. And I generally say, at work: i have a "no work on fb" rule. And eventually if we become friends and i add them they see that there are other people on there, but we don't talk about work.

each to her own, i guess

Full of fake people who take selfies and then filter the pics to make themselves look 3 stone lighter and with flawless complexions. It’s a joke

That depends who you have on your friends list surely, mine certainly is nothing like that.

But this is MN and FB threads always brings out people who think they are better than others because they don't use FB. Hey ho.

I still use it to post the odd photos from holiday but not much else. A lot less random updating of your day, funny conversations, games. challenges etc. I think a lot of my friends list don't use it anymore either, hence I get the same stagnant memes, adverts, idiotic political stuff from older family members etc.

I do use messenger a lot still though, as well as have a couple of family whatsapp chats.

I keep twitter and instagram for celebrities/news/companies etc. rather than people I actually know, and read more than post. I think a lot of the posts from my friends on facebook are actually originally from instagram now, shared across platforms.

I keep facebook mostly as it's the main place to keep slightly up-to-date with certain people, but don't obsessively scroll like I used to as not really much there. I don't have the hugest amount of friends on there though and don't do public posts.

I do like the 'this time 7 years ago' posts, can be quite fun :) and i can imagine the marketplace is useful.

I do want to have a clear out, but it's a bit awkward when it's people you work with, family etc.

So the people who remain (in my case at least) tend to be those who are not that interesting. Who post the boring inspirational memes or whatever.

But that's not the fault of Facebook, that's just who you happen to have on your friends list.

Nobody on my list posts anything like that - I'm not friends with anyone I consider dull or boring or annoying - it kind of defeats the point of having a friends list, doesn't it? Why be friends with people if you don't like what they post?

I use it for groups but very little for interaction with friends. In fact I've blocked most of the people that use it obsessively as I find it annoying!!