To think facebook is dying out?

[Middleagednbored]

Been on it for years, have a couple of hundred friends on there. Over the past few years, I've noticed that only a handful post regularly now, the rest post rarely, if ever. I've realised some haven't posted for years! There are a few who until a year or so ago posted regularly and I liked keeping up with their lives but now seem to have stopped. I have definitely cut down on my posts too. A year ago, I would average twice a week, now it's twice a month if that. What's the point if no one is reading? I do actually like seeing the memories come up and how people I don't see much anymore are getting on but these days it's so boring. Mostly ads. I'm in a few groups (hobbies, interests, local community) which are useful but otherwise it's so dead!

Do we think Facebook will fizzle put altogether over the next few years? I don't do Instagram or twitter and don't understand tik tok etc (too old 🤣).

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 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".

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 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.

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 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.

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 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 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!

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.

Enshittification

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.

I use it daily. Seems the same or possibly used more to me.

I've come off insta and Tik Tok though. I think insta is definitely on the decline.

Its been on the way out for years. When your granny / parents / aunts and uncles are on there the young ones move on.

People have been saying that for at least a decade yet Facebook hasn't gone anywhere 😂

I personally know very, very few people who aren't on Facebook and they range from my 14 year old niece to my 70+ relatives.

I've never had an account. I've never really been sure what the point of it is/was, tbh - I don't use Twitter or Instagram either.

I do agree people are on there, but they’re not using it very much nowadays. For a lot of people it’s become sort of equivalent to being in the phone book in the olden days.

I think the way it used to be used is no longer popular but the group functionality is where most people engage. Either special interest or local groups. I see a lot of engagement there

The question is, once a critical mass of people log off , will local news outlets be able to recover after their catastrophic financial collapse due to readers and advertisers moving to Facebook a decade ago?

Or is local journalism lost for ever ☹️. Even Meta has admitted their culpability in bringing this about. Local papers lose out to Facebook as UK towns become ‘news deserts’

Off to give some clicks to my local newspaper website while they still exist!

People have been saying that Facebook is on its way out for at least a decade if not more.

Personally I don't see why some people have to make a big deal out of not using it anymore - it's like some weird competition about not following the crowd 😂

I think many people here outgrew Facebook, or the novelty wore off, or they don't like what it's become, or they found other platforms which are better for communication.

Whether it dies out depends on the take-up of the next generation. Are your kids active users, or have they found something else to waste their lives on?

I'm 34, most of my friends are on insta so I've joined that but I don't really like/ get it. I still like FB but I think it is massively dying out. My younger cousins 20s don't have it at all.

I never posted a huge amount though and still don't. I'd average maybe 4 posts with pics/ what I'm up to a year. But I like the interaction it creates with friends from school/ living abroad and I like to see how their lives are going.

It's easier to join community groups, specifically mum/ baby ones, compared to insta. And I don't get twitter/ X even though I have an account

I only use it for the local groups to see what events are on, I also quite like reading the comments when people rant about the local MP or so so did this what a CF kind of posts.
I don't post statuses anymore, haven't for years.

@Holstomorrow that's really not my experience. My feeds are as active as ever but people are just using it in different ways.

I think people are using groups and pages much more and connecting with people outside of their immediate area. People don't post as many statuses but they do share photos or big life events.

Everyone on my Facebook still posts as much as ever, it's just the content that's changed.

I rarely use it now and it's just full of ads now. I have to scroll and scroll to find friends' posts and then when I do find them, it's mostly reposts of memes or news and local events not anything about them.

I would actually like to close my account but I think if I do it then closes my church's facebook page as I set that up (there are other admins). Anyone know?