To ask if your usage of Facebook has changed over the decade?

[Holidayaddict]

Memories have just come up on my Facebook from 8/9/10 years ago and include monologues about a car with a flat battery and a toy clear out plus a rant about a computer problem - I'm cringing as I often do when old memories come up! I would never dream of posting such stuff now. These days I rarely post and only if I've done something or gone somewhere fairly interesting (last post was over a week ago).

Back then I had young primary aged children, now I have teens. Many of my fb friends are in a similar position and also don't post much anymore either (many were equally guilty of boring posts in the past!). Yes, I still have a handful of people who regularly post crap and a few that actually post interesting stuff but the majority of my 100+ friends hardly post at all. As a result my feed is mostly adverts and posts from pages & groups I follow.

Just curious if this is due to the people I have on my friends list or has Facebook usage generally changed over the years?

I genuinely believe social media is bad for mental health

I agree

Definitely!
10+ years ago I’d post any old crap
‘I’m going to the shops’ or ‘Can’t wait for bed’. No/one cares 😆
Now I rarely post on my timeline and will post in various groups instead which are relevant to my life.
I post on kids’ bdays, prob put a holiday pic up, maybe wish a happy new year, first day of school year etc.
I’m much more private about what I post too. You wouldn’t know about my daily life from looking at timeline (also have strict settings).
I do still know people who post all the time though!
I have an insta but rarely post anything but like looking at other accounts esp celebs. Don’t do Twitter.

Oh god don’t get me started on the photos of kids. People posting about their very poorly children and posting photos of them whilst sick used to do my absolute head in! Like you wouldn’t want a photo of yourself poorly on Facebook so why an earth would you do that to your child. 😬

I’ve left Facebook but was on it for ten years. I remember once going through and deleting all my first years of statuses as they were so open And cringeworthy. In defence, we were a lot more naive back then about privacy surrounding SM, it was a novelty, I probably had a smaller, more exclusive ‘audience’ and FB itself was a very different animal to the beast it has become.

I miss the times when people were more openly emotional on FB. Perhaps when it started, the circulation wasn't as big. You'd never know now if someone needed a hug from their FB status!

The tag line used to be something like 'what are you thinking?' And people used respond 'I'm wondering why my washing machine eats socks'.

Posting photos of poorly children was done quite innocently though. 10 years ago you thought it was only your close friends/family who could see them.

I think it took a good few years for people to realise that the people you went to primary school with/random person you met in a bar aren't necessarily the best people to see your personal posts.

I left last year. The majority of my friends had already moved on and it was like a ghost town.

I do miss it, but only because it was a great way to keep tabs on friends and family without actually having to interact with them!

I've dipped into Instagram, but I can't stand the perfectly curated photos. They all look the same after a while. Twitter is cesspool.

I used to post about being a new mummy (which makes me cringe now) as well as other crap. I check my "on this day" things every day and often delete the worst ones: today's was a rant from around 5 years ago about not getting through to customer services for some order that hadn't been delivered which I've now binned.

I unfollowed quite a few people on there ages ago - the show off ones who post all about their perfect lives etc - because my life is far from perfect and I hate the jealousy that it brings out in me. A fair few people I know/knew have left fb now and the majority of those left rarely post.

I'm on it for the groups - I do photography as a hobby and am on a couple of related groups, the main one being for female photographers only and I've found it incredibly helpful and supportive. The group posts take up 90% of my feed.

The last time I updated my status was NYE where I added a photo I'd made of some champagne (which was actually some lager in a champagne flute). Before that, the last post that isn't private (I sometimes share photos of my children but change the privacy so only a select few people can see it) was a week before Christmas when I talked about something I'd knitted and was proud of. I don't feel like I have anything interesting to share and highly doubt that anyone would be at all bothered about me nipping to tesco for some milk!

Definitely.

I was never prolific on fb, but would post 8-10 photos from trips. I stopped doing that around 2014, because it felt a bit show-offy, but when my hard drive died, it was the only place I had some photos.

Ive been thinking about going back to posting a few photos from trips, because a few people have said they like to see what friends/family are doing and to see photos of different places. If I do, before then, I’ll go through everything and delete anything that makes me .

I don't post on my wall at all anymore and have unfollowed all friends as I only use it now to access closed or secret groups, mainly about slow cooking or parenting. O never posted much though, I've always assumed no one would be interested in my life!

10 years ago I used to post the odd update and photo. Left FB 5 years ago as it's such bullshit, just untruths and bragging really.

I looked at my usage tracker and though I check facebook every day still, I spend an average of two minutes on there.

These days, I use it for groups, organising parties, finding local events and for wishing people a happy birthday. I like it more now than when my feed was people's public overshare diary.

I hate the algorithms now & fb mucked up instagram, I don't want adverts & random influencers promoted on my feed. The issue is facebook relies on making money by selling to you otherwise it's not worth much. They buy the smaller social media apps like instagram & whatapp & then ruin them too as it's about monetisation as opposed to experience. I've left fb & insta which is the same for most of my friends (30s). I will leave whatsapp when ads come on which I think is this yr.

I'm not against paying but would rather pay for the app or a monthly fee as opposed to adverts & stealth adverts.

It’s years since I last posted on FB. I still have it though.

Have the odd friend who posts. And they are odd tbf. One posts life-affirming slogans, usually on a moonlit sky background...Cringe.

I cringe so much at my memories, I posted all loads of random shit, sometimes 3 statuses a night , I actively delete most of my memories now as I dont want to see them again (I know they'll be in a cloud somewhere though). These days I share posts related to work and maybe once or twice a month I'll share a picture of my daughters as I've a lot of family on there. I prefer instagram though, I feel like facebook has too many lurkers (I'm included in that I guess) and my instagram has only 18 people, my very best friends and some family who i like my posts and interact with me, these are people who genuinely care what I'm up to.

Yep, if it wasn't for the local school and parent groups, I would have deleted by now.

It's just chock full of adverts and personal data harvesting games and quizzes.

I'm shocked to still see the ' boast posts' from some friend though..and others posting photos of their kids. I haven't posted a photo of my daughter on Facebook for years.

Obviously if I did delete it I would be worried of losing contact with people, but it would be up to me - and them - to keep in contact via email or phone like the good old days.

I find I'm probably making false judgements of how friends are doing by seeing their posts anyway; as we know social media can be a load of rubbish.

I agree it can be very bad for your mental health, it's a time thief and socially stunting.

Ooh never thought of deleting the cringy memories! Will do that going forward so if anyone actually feels the need to look back over my history they won't realise how sad I was

Thanks for the replies. So it seems it's not just my friends then. Facebook has moved on and many people have woken up to the fact that oversharing, boasting, ranting etc is not a healthy thing to do......

I re-joined recently after deleting previous account full of utter crap and nights out because I wanted local nursery recommendations. I got my recommendation and stayed for a bit and remembered why I deleted the previous account. So now Facebook free.
Instagram on the other hand ...

Yeah mine has changed hugely. I also wasn't happy with Facebook data that old on me floating in cyberspace so deleted my profile and started again.

I joined in 2007 and used to post most days - pictures, funny stories, questions, banal stuff.

I left FB in 2015. I had virtually stopped posting, found it extremely boring and no longer liked the idea of sharing my location or photos of my children etc.

It seems a bizarre and pointless platform to me these days. I can’t imagine ever wanting to use it again.

yes OP mines changed as well. 10 yrs ago all manner of rubbish. Now I have only guenuine friends and family. I use it more as a place to contact/ share with these folks as we don`t live nearby. Random shit no!

If it wasnt so good at keeping in contact/ pictures for family and friends Id delete it.

privacy is full on it now as well, unlike 10 yrs ago.

I deleted it a few years ago and I’d never return. I was never a massive fan of it anyway, I much preferred MySpace back in the day and only got FB once I realised MySpace was totally dead. I never liked FB, it was too ‘personal’ and I found it boring. I only have Instagram now.

I had it, hardly used it and saw the rubbish people posted on it, trying to make their lives/homes, etc. look perfect. It's totally false.

Deleted it years ago and never touched any social media since then.

Facebook, Twitter and the like just seem pointless to me.

Mind you the Facebook holiday posts used to make me laugh, a picture of the whole family "making memories and living their best lives" Hmmm, well done for letting a tonne of people know your house is empty!!

It's not just the status updates though. There are comments on friends posts, groups, pages you like etc. I've been slowly going through my activity log and deleting my embarrassing comments and likes. My opinions on lots of things have vastly changed since 2007