Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/09/05/young-people-finally-fleeing-f.html
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Good news. Fortunately for Zuckerberg, though, they’re staying on Instagram. I’m sure at this very moment the fine folks at the I.R.A. in St. Petersburg are looking for ways to spread disinformation through that platform.
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I’m conflicted. I have a FB account that I only occasionally post to but monitor frequently since I have many friends and relatives (some overseas) that use it to stay connected. Getting them all to switch to a different service is just not realistic. My millennial son and all of his friends never had FB accounts and never will.
Sigh, I suppose I should just accept that I’m just one more old fart.
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The article suggest they are leaving because they aren’t being lied to in the way the like anymore, at least for some of them. One of the things I like about Facebook is that it is relatively easy to get a diversity of opinion on your page. I had back to back posts yesterday about how the new Nike ads are so brave followed by how Brett is basically Al Bundy because they are both bad football players that now sell shoes. For what it is worth, the Nike protest posts have definitely come from the dumber end of the spectrum thus far, and usually along the lines of how it is a slap in the face to the military for some unexplained reason.
Also, “deleting Facebook from the phone” doesn’t necessarily mean you are leaving the service. It could just mean you don’t want the damn thing draining your battery like crazy and the web site works perfectly fine on mobile Safari/Chrome.
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Maybe young people don’t like being blasted with the politics/slammed by their older relatives anymore? I mean, who wants to have a thanksgiving dinner conversation on their phone the other 364 days of the year.
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“but it’s odd that it aged so fast into being the social network of seething, racist seniors.” Really? What a load!! I see more seething progressives wanting to ban Free Speech because it goes against their narratives!!
There is also the possibility that older people may not be a adept at deleting things or simply don’t give a damn.
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Welcome to BoingBoing!
Remind me of how long a “liberal” will last in Freeperland.
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Seems to me, Facebook has always had more to offer older users. The best thing about Facebook is staying connected with old friends. The younger you are, the more centralized your friends are (generally speaking). When all or most of your friends are at arms length, you don’t need a social network to stay connected. Younger people haven’t had time to fall out of touch with friends, and their lives are still interesting and exciting enough that they don’t need to snoop old girlfriends from high school for entertainment. Personally, I hardly ever check my facebook anymore but I’m reluctant to delete the account and loose those connections.
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I’m not sure what observing “hey, a lot of older people use FB these days, and they’ve gotten a reputation for fake racist BS memes” has anything to do with ‘banning free speech’, but I guess you’ve gotta scream your catchphrases, guy.
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I’m torn too.
Most of the members of my extended family that use fb do so in a completely congenial way. I know I miss out on what’s going on in their lives because I don’t have an account (and they don’t get the pictures of our kids that they want). Thankfully, we don’t have “seething, rascist” seniors in our family so I have actually been thinking about joining.
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Sorry but what the heck is “Freeperland” ? lol
About as long as his snowflake account will last here. The difference is that the liberal won’t go back to his friends to whinge about his “martyrdom” in the cause of Free Speech.
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I think this is just a stage-of-life phenomenon. Facebook is geared toward maintaining social connections with the people that you don’t live near anymore. Most young people haven’t lived long enough yet to have experienced their social circles dispersing geographically. They’ll get there eventually, as everyone does, and if Facebook is still the dominant tool for those interactions 10 or 20 years from now, they’ll have to get on board.
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I’m starting to feel like there’s a story like this every other week. I suppose that could indicate some kind of a trend that signifies an actual decline, but it seems more like grasping for headlines.
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FB is utterly insincere in their apologies – and their future intent – whenever outrage over the latest FB privacy violation won’t go away. I simply do not trust FB.
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You know that’s not how “free speech” works right? Like, they’re a private enterprise providing a service and people can post pretty much anything they believe. And people disagreeing with you isn’t censorship. You see that, right?
By the way, welcome to boing boing, comrade!
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It’s Dutch for “google it”.
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Wait, Facebook has an app?
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