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What evidence is there that Facebook in particular or social media in general is actually declining, rather than occasionally inspiring cranky articles?

apocalyptic0n3 9y ago
There is a bit of evidence in that US and Canadian daily users declined for the first time last quarter. [1] [1]: https://www.recode.net/2018/1/31/16957122/facebook-daily-active-user-decline-us-canda-q4-earnings-2018 https://www.recode.net/2018/1/31/16957122/facebook-daily-act...
mantas 9y ago
Regarding other social media, such functionality is longer seen as a perk by users. Interesting example may be Strava. They seem to be gravitating more towards "social" than "data crunching" kind of app. Nobody in my circles use it as "social" tool. People are not happy they're investing in bullshit functionality rather than fixing long-standing "data crunching" issues. Few mistakes here and there and people may start leaving for less "social" counterparts. There's little lockin in fitness apps anyway. Strava may be trying to steal a piece of Facebook's cake and solve lack of lockin. But IMO they're shooting themselves in a foot.
jvagner 9y ago
Evidence? Perhaps too early for that, but the article notes the pollster publishing the results of a survey after he left Facebook and started his own company: "Among tech companies, 32 percent of Americans said Facebook is harmful. A separate survey, which placed Facebook among other large brands including Walmart, McDonald’s, and Marlboro, found that 27 percent said it is harmful." There was an old article about which companies people could abandon first, among companies like Facebook, Google, Apple and Amazon. I believe Facebook was pretty high on that list. If you look at what happened to a company like AOL (just typing that seemed weird) or even Myspace, it's quite easy to imagine Facebook fading hard, mostly because people WANT it to fade, or they lose interest. On my own side, I only keep it around to share photos of my kid with my close friends and family. Beyond that, among the FB friends I have from years of working in tech, very few of them ever post anything at all. There's a silent percentage of the demographic who basically use FB as an RSS reader. How valuable will that be over time?

apocalyptic0n3 9y ago

There is a bit of evidence in that US and Canadian daily users declined for the first time last quarter. [1] [1]: https://www.recode.net/2018/1/31/16957122/facebook-daily-active-user-decline-us-canda-q4-earnings-2018 https://www.recode.net/2018/1/31/16957122/facebook-daily-act...

mantas 9y ago

Regarding other social media, such functionality is longer seen as a perk by users. Interesting example may be Strava. They seem to be gravitating more towards "social" than "data crunching" kind of app. Nobody in my circles use it as "social" tool. People are not happy they're investing in bullshit functionality rather than fixing long-standing "data crunching" issues. Few mistakes here and there and people may start leaving for less "social" counterparts. There's little lockin in fitness apps anyway. Strava may be trying to steal a piece of Facebook's cake and solve lack of lockin. But IMO they're shooting themselves in a foot.

jvagner 9y ago

Evidence? Perhaps too early for that, but the article notes the pollster publishing the results of a survey after he left Facebook and started his own company: "Among tech companies, 32 percent of Americans said Facebook is harmful. A separate survey, which placed Facebook among other large brands including Walmart, McDonald’s, and Marlboro, found that 27 percent said it is harmful." There was an old article about which companies people could abandon first, among companies like Facebook, Google, Apple and Amazon. I believe Facebook was pretty high on that list. If you look at what happened to a company like AOL (just typing that seemed weird) or even Myspace, it's quite easy to imagine Facebook fading hard, mostly because people WANT it to fade, or they lose interest. On my own side, I only keep it around to share photos of my kid with my close friends and family. Beyond that, among the FB friends I have from years of working in tech, very few of them ever post anything at all. There's a silent percentage of the demographic who basically use FB as an RSS reader. How valuable will that be over time?