Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/06/25/facebook-is-becoming-a-service.html
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Facebook is social media for old people
… FSVO “old” that includes early 30s. I’d be delighted for my children to ditch FB; it’s a PITA but it’s also the only way to keep up with pics of the grandkid.
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#deletefacebook
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Yes. And?..
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How did the BBS fare?
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Dad, why is your blog still on Facebook?
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Prelude to “Dad, what’s Facebook?”
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who used Reddit in 2015? i mean, i know FB is for the grandparents, and it seems like Twitter is the realm of Gen-Xers. i’m guessing Reddit is considered cool enough, but i was just wondering who was the major user of it back in 2015.
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I’m still somewhat amused that people count YouTube as “social media”.
To me, it’s still a video hosting platform. I was going to write “Yes, you can post video responses, but nobody does that these days.”
Then I thought to check. Apparently, they removed that feature due to low engagement. Years ago. Which explains why I don’t see them anymore. But I do recall when you used to get a lot of conversations that way.
Basically, I doubt this study simply because it sets the bar for what is social media at a very low level.
What it does seem to reveal as a trend is that younger folks want simpler, more visual systems. Note that the places where you can write in longer forms get much lower scores…
As an old person, I’d like to point out that Facebook’s Events system is something I find somewhat useful. It sucks that I can’t get an iCal feed to push into my Google Calendar (or iCalendar, or Outlook - pick your poison). I’m a member of a couple of clubs that organise events through Facebook and it’s actually very smooth and handy.
If you’re young, you probably only have one social group and see them a lot. So scheduling stuff is easy. Facebook may be for “olds”, but its features are oriented towards that - as the youth grows older, they’ll either have to use some other system, or go to Facebook.
And that brings me to my biggest question - are they just ashamed to report their use? They probably have an FB account, if only to respond to messages from family. They may not use it more than once per day, but it’s there. Which would explain the scores - they’re honestly “not using” it, but are on it anyway.
So maybe features like events and groups will gradually pull them in anyway. That really wouldn’t surprise me… Because whilst I could use other tools to do what I do in FB, they’re not going to be as convenient.
Oh, some might not like this and see it as a defence of FB rather than an exploration of the topic by posing as Devil’s advocate. So, um, may I just finish on a vitriolic note and say I’m happy to see Snapchat die? I hated that platform…
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But why would I want to use the thing teenagers are using?
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depends what you’re selling I guess.
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Ah yes. So the more accurate BB headline might be “Facebook is advertising at old people.”
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But how will I Make make Facebook work for your my business with this marketing course?
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But… but… think of the ad revenue!
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Reddit users.
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I agree… I think that YouTube and proper social networks serve fundamentally different psychological needs. Social networks tend to serve the purpose of maintaining social contact with people we do know in real life. YouTube on other hand serves multiple other purposes, such as source of entertainment or knowledge repository. However, I don’t think it maintaining social contact with friends and relatives in a big part of it.
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Funny, when the FB backlash started, everyonesaid it would go the way of MySpace.
For a couple of years after the IPO it seemed like the company was invincible, and would never die.
But people can only put up with so much bullsh*t and maybe the MySpace predictions will actually come true.
Sure, Zuck will make sure that his cancerous empire will continue in some form.
But oh… the schadenfreude party we will have when FB numbers start to decline.
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[tents fingers] Gooooood.
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I trust in the kids to figure this shit out.
We’re the ones (yes, look around) who are going to flounder about trying to figure out all this social media shit - and I guess that kind of makes Facebook into the La Brea tarpits, doesn’t it?
Whatever - mixed metaphors - who cares - follow the young if you want to stay alive, try not to hinder their passage nor stand in their way, let them lead - for we have truly fucked up and must be sorry (in more than a mere Canadian kinda way) for all things hereafter.
Or something like that.
Also - weed really helps.
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I guess teenagers have no need to repost completely false memes that support their political position. Then what else do they do all day??
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