4 ms·

Tech people and young people are quitting Facebook or have done so. These are the trendsetter groups. We have likely seen peak of social media

bigiain 7y ago
I hope you are right. I also fear what FB and Zuck are capable of if they realise they're on a dead-end business model, and what abuses of personal data we might see as they attempt to cash out before everything dries up...
o10449366 7y ago
Tech people and young people in general? Or just people you know? I've been seeing variations of this comment on Hacker News for over 10 years now, and yet the imminent demise of Facebook as a result of users who probably never actively used it anyway leaving has yet to be realized.
- negamax 7y ago
  That’s fair point. I can only speak for people I know. Facebook has become less for sharing with friends but more about messenger and events
rococode 7y ago
Just another point of view: I'm Gen Z the trend I'm seeing among my friends is not en masse quitting of Facebook, but less regular usage of some of its functions - sharing articles, uploading photos, posting status updates, commenting on random posts, and so on. A quick scroll through my current feed only shows 1 or 2 posts made directly by friends, and they're all big life updates: graduations, engagements, etc. It's certainly not like the old days where people would share an album of a vacation or post about a small quirk of their day. But even though people use many parts of Facebook less often, it's really hard to quit Facebook entirely because a lot of social activity revolves around it. In my circle, people tend to plan events using Facebook and often use Messenger to communicate. In university, people would ask questions in various FB groups. So while no one's really happy with Facebook, it still provides several conveniences that we don't want to live without. Also, Instagram is still very popular - much of the activity that used to be on Facebook seems to have moved there.
tty2300 7y ago
Really? When I'm in public I see everyone mindlessly swiping through photos on Instagram. Social media never died, it just moved.
- LoSboccacc 7y ago
  but is Instagram really social? The most people I know just consume and leave a like. Even Instagram stories are one way communication in most cases. there's not the level of interaction (and exposing one own opinion) that you'd see below a Facebook or Twitter post
luckylion 7y ago
They are quitting Facebook, not social media. It's not like people ditching iOS don't use any smartphone at all, they'll just switch to android.
- FullMetalBitch 7y ago
  As others have said and you point out, people are just moving from Facebook to other social media platforms, and then there is LinkedIn which is as bad as any other.
blablabla123 7y ago
I've also quit FB recently - and most other social networks I've left before or at least abandoned. It's really funny, I thought I would miss it more but I don't. Just an extra tab that I can scroll through like HN or a news aggregator. There are so many buttons but most I didn't click, also I stopped posting virtually anything 1-2 years ago. The thing is also: the things that I'm deeply interested in get hardly any likes anyways. Apart from that, when meeting people and continuing to meet them, I usually use the good old phone to communicate with them. The people I interact the most with on Facebook are at the same time mostly those I meet the least in the real world. Shaving off an additional layer of complexity...
kwcts 7y ago
Moving to Instagram.

bigiain 7y ago

I hope you are right. I also fear what FB and Zuck are capable of if they realise they're on a dead-end business model, and what abuses of personal data we might see as they attempt to cash out before everything dries up...

o10449366 7y ago

Tech people and young people in general? Or just people you know? I've been seeing variations of this comment on Hacker News for over 10 years now, and yet the imminent demise of Facebook as a result of users who probably never actively used it anyway leaving has yet to be realized.

negamax 7y ago
That’s fair point. I can only speak for people I know. Facebook has become less for sharing with friends but more about messenger and events

rococode 7y ago

Just another point of view: I'm Gen Z the trend I'm seeing among my friends is not en masse quitting of Facebook, but less regular usage of some of its functions - sharing articles, uploading photos, posting status updates, commenting on random posts, and so on. A quick scroll through my current feed only shows 1 or 2 posts made directly by friends, and they're all big life updates: graduations, engagements, etc. It's certainly not like the old days where people would share an album of a vacation or post about a small quirk of their day. But even though people use many parts of Facebook less often, it's really hard to quit Facebook entirely because a lot of social activity revolves around it. In my circle, people tend to plan events using Facebook and often use Messenger to communicate. In university, people would ask questions in various FB groups. So while no one's really happy with Facebook, it still provides several conveniences that we don't want to live without. Also, Instagram is still very popular - much of the activity that used to be on Facebook seems to have moved there.

tty2300 7y ago

Really? When I'm in public I see everyone mindlessly swiping through photos on Instagram. Social media never died, it just moved.

LoSboccacc 7y ago
but is Instagram really social? The most people I know just consume and leave a like. Even Instagram stories are one way communication in most cases. there's not the level of interaction (and exposing one own opinion) that you'd see below a Facebook or Twitter post

luckylion 7y ago

They are quitting Facebook, not social media. It's not like people ditching iOS don't use any smartphone at all, they'll just switch to android.

FullMetalBitch 7y ago
As others have said and you point out, people are just moving from Facebook to other social media platforms, and then there is LinkedIn which is as bad as any other.

blablabla123 7y ago

I've also quit FB recently - and most other social networks I've left before or at least abandoned. It's really funny, I thought I would miss it more but I don't. Just an extra tab that I can scroll through like HN or a news aggregator. There are so many buttons but most I didn't click, also I stopped posting virtually anything 1-2 years ago. The thing is also: the things that I'm deeply interested in get hardly any likes anyways. Apart from that, when meeting people and continuing to meet them, I usually use the good old phone to communicate with them. The people I interact the most with on Facebook are at the same time mostly those I meet the least in the real world. Shaving off an additional layer of complexity...

kwcts 7y ago

Moving to Instagram.