Yes, have thought this for a few years. Hasn’t happened yet. I wonder what is after Facebook. FB grew out of how shitty MySpace was, and how tedious it was to set up one’s own page and drive traffic to it. As well as it being a great idea on a college campus, to keep in touch with friends and develop a social network online that would translate to IRL. But now… what is Facebook? It’s something other than what it started out to be.
So, again, what is the next step past Facebook? Seems overdue.
The alternative is to use them anyway. Netizens seem to want to be able to have things both ways - to complain that Facebook/YouTube/eBay/etc are “de-facto monopolies” whilst simultaneously refusing to use good present alternatives. It’s naive, because scale is used to lock users in, and foster agreement with the same toxic user-climate/business-practices/TOS that they are complaining about. That’s why monopolies are terrible in the first place. So the antidote is to not seek that critical mass of adoption, but rather to agree to an ecosystem where we are willing and able to use several smaller imperfect tools instead.
The one-size-fits-all, one-stop-shopping, benevolent dictator internet service is not possible - so pursuing it is not desirable.
You don’t say 
I knew being behind the social media curve would help me eventually, I’ve never used Facebook, so I guess I won that round?
Next up, never using Twitter…
I will continue to smugly have a facebook for the sole purpose earning my free e-currency for crappy games and things I shouldn’t be playing anyways. Same for twitter as my food-truck-finding service.
This, this, this, and this.
I am so sick of smart people absolutely refusing to understand why people use Facebook. It is not just because they are stupid idiots who don’t know any better. Facebook provides a service that is very valuable to millions of people. And, yes, it uses that inroad to do reprehensible things. You’re never going to fix the second if you refuse to acknowledge the first. Moaning “just use email and Google!” is a waste of everyone’s time.
Learn to spell, please: facetotaler. 
I am so sick of smart people absolutely refusing to understand why people use Facebook. It is not just because they are stupid idiots who don’t know any better.
Oh, I understand very well why people use facecrack: It’s not because they are stupid idiots, but because it is intentionally, scientifically, and literally designed to addict people to constant cycles of seek&reward.
If you are wondering who the addict in the room is: it’s you.
Classic.
Not only do I not use facebook, I genuinely don’t know why anyone else does either. It’s the McDonald’s of internet content.
You do realize some people use Facebook for reasons beyond looking at web articles, right? I’ve lived in five states in the last ten years, and made a lot of friends in each of them. Facebook helps me stay in contact with them, and has also been a great way to stay in touch with people I’ve met professionally at conferences. I mean, yes, I could use like five other sites at the same time to get what I get out of Facebook socially, but who is realistically going to do that?
I am very web-savvy and have run self hosted sites in the past. Even if my extended family were to take up building their own sites, why bother? FB is a convenient way for people (web-savvy or not) to keep up with each other when they live thousands of miles away. All of the social media sites are for non-web-savvy people just as much as they are for web-savvy people. And younger people are using SnapChat which is even more self centered and vacuous than Facebook. But I would sure love to hear what all the web-savvy people are using!
Some people use private groups to share family pictures and goings-on with other family members spread across great distances. It’s a free and easy addition to video chat and phone calls.
If you are wondering who the douchebag in the room is: it’s you.
I too miss the days when blogs and websites would link to each other. So many of the sites I used to go to just aren’t around anymore…
So Cory, which websites would you recommend?
(He asked 35 comments deep)
Never got on board with Facebook and I did try creating an account around 2006’ish and didn’t like what I saw. I reallly wanted my google password and that was a bucket of nope.
No-one is wondering.
I ditched, deleted and set ablaze my facebook back in '14.
One of the better choices I’ve made.
I quite like Facebook. Easy to keep in contact with friends and family. Far easier to plan parties or arrange playdates. Easy to update everyone at once.
A friend has chosen not to use facebook as a means of avoiding creditors and her ex-mother-in-law.
You mean use the internet like we used to before Facebook? What nonsense.
