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As a person close to the "teen" demographic, I can tell you that teens still use Facebook. Thinking of social media as a zero sum game is a common mistake; each
by plaidturtle 11y ago
As a person close to the "teen" demographic, I can tell you that teens still use Facebook. Thinking of social media as a zero sum game is a common mistake; each has its own use case. For instance, Facebook is usually used when chatting on desktop/laptop with friends, adding new people you met, or chatting with people who you aren't really close to. Also, Facebook is widely used for groups and events, which no other social media provides. Snapchat might have replaced some aspect of the Facebook newsfeed but people still post things on Facebook. When a teen says, "omg Facebook is like so old and no one ever uses it". They mean to say that they don't use it as much but they still use it for things I mentioned.
Edit: It is important to note that Facebook has the "identity" aspect down like no other.
- enjo 10y agoIt also seems that as those kids turn from teenagers to 20-somethings the value of Facebook increases markedly. Facebook is optimized for the "we don't see each other every day" type of interactions. Once you've left home and started to leave a geographically dispersed network behind, Facebook looks way more appealing.
- bduerst 10y agoExcept that attention span is a zero sum game. Facebook's (et al) business model success is correlated with the amount of time you are under their umbrella.
- plaidturtle 10y agoPeople don't necessarily have to be "on" Facebook for Facebook to collect data about their user. Many apps connect to Facebook. So they can collect data even when people are not using Facebook. The more people use Facebook connected services, the more data Facebook collects about users. Which means better ads for the users & better data for businesses.
- bduerst 10y agoRight, being "on" Facebook isn't a prereq for being under their umbrella. Snapchat, Vine, and other networks are not under that umbrella, meaning it's still a zero sum game. These companies are competing for your attention, for which there is limited supply.
- nosuchthing 10y agoFacebook circa 2016 comes up because it's been a ubiquitous hub but that seems to be its fatal flaw. It's lame once you have to be associated with Grandma and the whole UI looks like AOL. [1] https://31.media.tumblr.com/106e7e5598f02c6017fb6e146dea465f/tumblr_inline_nimszn3Xft1t98at1.gif https://31.media.tumblr.com/106e7e5598f02c6017fb6e146dea465f...