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A twelve year old laughed at me for using Facebook - and I mean a genuine, mirthful, hearty laugh. I'm thirty. If I'm being laughed at by someone from generatio

A twelve year old laughed at me for using Facebook - and I mean a genuine, mirthful, hearty laugh. I'm thirty. If I'm being laughed at by someone from generation Z for using Facebook... how will Facebook grow? And I don't even use Facebook that much; most of my social activity occurs on Discord.

giancarlostoro 5y ago
I had no idea this was a thing, but I'm probably about the same, Discord is my main social media platform. Used to be HN.
- crossroadsguy 5y ago
  HN is/was a social media site? And discord a general social media site? From what I’ve seen of discord it comes across as a site for gamers around gaming world and then proceeding to include also those “interest groups” (ie eating Telegram’s lunch) where those people are active who keep messaging incessantly, memes, LOL kinda things and all. (I mean of course in a pedantic way a lot of site of the Internet will be considered social media sites but we are talking about Facebook specifically here)
  - SllX 5y ago
    Yes, these are social networks. Arguably even a vBulletin forum is a social network and I’ve met some of my best friends in life on those when I was a young lad. If you can post somewhere as a person, build a reputation or identity there, interact with a community and build relationships: congrats, you have a social network. The mechanics of me replying to you on HN, sending an iMessage to a girl, sending a Slack message to my boss or posting to a group in Discord are nearly identical but the people and the intricacies of the software differ. This is one of the reasons I’ve never been a fan of the “Facebook is a social media monopoly” line of thinking, at least in America. Just doesn’t work if you sit down and think about it, it’s just another website that does a few things better than some others and they are massively successful because of what they’ve chosen to be good at. HN is a lot like /., Digg or very early Reddit to me, and it makes sense because it was started with a lot of the same ideas towards the end of that era, but with a purpose to serve Y Combinator’s needs.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - giancarlostoro 5y ago
    HN is a social network as much as LinkedIn. They might not look the same and have the same features, but people connect with each other in varying ways on here. Discord it depends, but if you join the right communities, it's like joining the perfect Facebook Groups.
- pandemicPandaaa 5y ago
mathlover2 5y ago
> most of my social activity occurs on Discord. Same here.
mrfusion 5y ago
> most of my social activity occurs on Discord. Explain like I’m 60? How do you use it?
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- hprotagonist 5y ago
  well, like IRC.
  - edvinbesic 5y ago
    Stepped into that one
  - herbst 5y ago
    Like IRC, but instead of controlling a server, channel or user account yourself you are in full merci of the auto ban bots on a closed platform. Instead of using one of thousands of thin clients you are forced to use one of their few thick ones, hungry for memory. And because nobody but discord can actually moderate, the platform is full of spam and scam. What they do against spam? Nothing, but requiring a phone number that works with their 2fa what automatically locks out people without a (supported) phone number, for a online chat.. what a time to be alive Just like IRC, but doing everything wrong that made IRC great.
    - hprotagonist 5y ago
      not disagreeing with anything there. i use irc more, myself. merely noting that the social interaction mode with other users is IRC style.
    - mcv 5y ago
      How does Discord spam work? I only really follow one Discord community (which has a few dozen channels), and it feels like the people organising it are in full control. I certainly haven't seen any spam there. It's a nice place to hang out with like-minded people (which in this case means middle-aged people who grew up with WFRP).
mesozoic 5y ago
Did he laugh at you for oculus or instagram?
- decafninja 5y ago
  Well, the subject of this topic is the original Facebook itself, not its other properties like Instagram. That said, if I'm not mistaken I think Instagram too is deemed to be something for "old" folks by the current set of teens, tweens, and younger twentysomethings.
  - crmd 5y ago
    “The platform got better when children started using it” said no user ever.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
  - hedora 5y ago
    The fortysomethings I know also think it's only for old folks. Do thirtysomething's still use Facebook ironically, or something?
    - tonyedgecombe 5y ago
      I was ridiculed in my local cafe for not having a Facebook account. This was by people in my age group (mid fifties). I had an account years ago but abandoned it as soon as they started to monetise (same for Twitter).
    - onaworkcomputer 5y ago
      > Do thirtysomething's still use Facebook ironically, or something? Not among my peers. Facebook is seen as a way to communicate with older and tech-challenged relatives. It's in the same category as LinkedIn -- a social network whose content is mostly cringe and that you're only on as a means to an end, not because it's a good product.
MrMan 5y ago
I have used discord intensively in the past but it was tightly linked to very narrow interests, like video games. I never discovered anything on discord, I rather got discord invites from other forums or what have you. Are there discovery features in discord I may not be aware of?
- sam0x17 5y ago
  The lack of discovery is precisely why it's so popular, in my opinion. Communities have a much easier time gatekeeping so you avoid redditization and have a much greater sense of privacy.
  - celdon25 5y ago
    > much greater sense of privacy. This could have been the case, but Discord blocks me from making new accounts without a separate, expensive mobile phone number. You can’t even join most servers without having a bot ping your name publicly. This name is then searchable by any user in that server by searching for “mentions:yourcurrentname#tag”. This applies even if you changed your username since then. You also cannot turn off the ability for someone to see what mutual servers or mutual friends you have. Any of the above issues would be manageable as a single issue, but when combined, Discord is the worst tool for privacy, bar none.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
    - sam0x17 5y ago
      Privacy in the sense that zoomers' parents won't find their server.
- throwuxiytayq 5y ago
  There's always been endless third party websites, and I believe they added first-party discovery for public community servers a while ago. Community servers have been getting some serious features, too. They really are rapidly (and successfully) becoming something more like traditional social media.
jiscariot 5y ago
12 year-olds have always laughed at Facebook and instead used, X (kik, Snap, Tiktok, etc). They are a fickle bunch with no interest in being on the same platform as their parents. This is not anything new. I'd argue that the NYT's war on FB and Apple's policies around privacy (e.g. "Tracking your data" when FB and "Enhancing your user experience" when APPL).
- ehnto 5y ago
  Your view seems to ignore the temporal aspect, for one the original userbase of FB was students, they certainly weren't parents. FB hasn't been around that long, so to suggest anything has 'always' been the case ignores how this has been a very rapidly evolving ecosystem of software, from a generational point of view.
  - waste_monk 5y ago
    You're missing the forest for the tree. It doesn't matter what software platforms or communications methods are involved - children (or rather descendants, since they may be adults) generally do not wish to share the same social platform as their parents / older relatives.
    - ehnto 5y ago
      I totally agree, that's the point of my comment even. This is a moving target, nothing 'always' about it. We're discussing the decline of facebook over time, and it started being popular with an entirely different age group than it is now. I also think it's worth noting these are relatively new phenomenon, we haven't even had social networks for long enough to pin down trends so absolutely.
    - sjg007 5y ago
      I appreciate my parents being on FB. But I’m an adult. I also left FB for a time though too. I think FB can do real psychological harm so you have to be psychologically prepared for it.
  - ipaddr 5y ago
daniel-thompson 5y ago
> how will Facebook grow? Probably by buying the next up and coming networks, just like they did with Instagram and Whatsapp.
- throwaway20222 5y ago
  I think this would have certainly been in the cards in the past, but at least for the moment there is regulatory backlash against anything seen as anticompetitive, especially buyouts like you referenced. (I Work with M&A teams)FB is having to pay significantly above market to attract and retain talent, and the use patterns are not well aligned to homegrown competitors to tik tok. Some might argue this is why such a big bet is being placed on the “metaverse” business plan. But these trends may be the biggest long term challenge they have faced since the rise of mobile.
- sjg007 5y ago
  They can’t buy TikTok which is the big thing right now.
  - UncleMeat 5y ago
    There will be a new big thing in five years or so. Meta makes enough money to bridge to that. They don't need to win every generation of social media.
- sofixa 5y ago
  There's no chance in hell regulators let them get away with it. They couldn't even acquire Giphy, let alone something more serious.
Simon_O_Rourke 5y ago
My little nephew categorized all Facebook users as "40 year old Moms drinking wine". Among a certain generation, the possession of a Facebook login is a cause for ridicule.
- RonaldOlzheim 5y ago
  Sounds legit
- netizen-936824 5y ago
  Well that's how I describe it too tbh
- omosubi 5y ago
  That kid knows what's up
mcv 5y ago
I don't mind being on a platform that's not used by 12 year olds. I'm looking for interesting social/political/philosophical/technological content and engagement, and I suspect only a minority of teenagers are really interested in that. And while teenagers are on Discord, my impression is that their content there isn't great either. The interesting stuff on Discord is also mostly from 40-somethings. Thing is, facebook has never been a great place for these things. I still have a FB account, but I haven't checked it in years, and back in the days when I did, there was only one person posting really interesting stuff. Everything else was just lame crap. For a while, I set FB to notify me when that guy posted anything and just ignored everything else, but I really wish he'd just post on a better platform.
- namelessoracle 5y ago
  Discord has a discovery problem. Your in channels you get invited to or made aware of, and most of those channels are echo chambers where the people running the channel are obsessed with getting you to post in them (even if its complete nonsense) There are some quality discord channels, but how do you learn about or get invited to them in the first place?
  - mcv 5y ago
    In this particular case, one of my favourite RPG writers posted about it on MeWe. He, together with some other RPG writers, runs the place. It's tied to their Patreon, they organise talks and workshops for members. Most of the channels are about RPGs of course, but they have channels about tons of other topics too. One of my favourites is their channel about TV & movies, because there I get to discuss TV shows and movies with people who tend to have a similar taste as I do. It's absolutely an echo chamber; it's mostly people who grew up with British roleplaying games in the 1980s and still love them today. But it's a fun group.
- shreyshnaccount 5y ago
  Wikisocial comes to mind. Have you tried that?
culopatin 5y ago
I’m 30 and I don’t want anyone to know I open Facebook. I only use it for marketplace and to receive messages from my older relatives. I feel like it’s associated with dumb content and being manipulated to watch hollow nonsense. But I also don’t use TikTok for the same reasons. I do install Instagram every now and then because many of my friends send me memes there and I don’t want to ignore them forever, but it’s just a touch and go.
missedthecue 5y ago
Facebook is lucky to not have to chase the 12 year old market. They get bored quickly, have no money, and are impossible to keep interested for very long. Having the boomers is something everyone mocks FB for, and no one realizes it's why they're so successful.
pier25 5y ago
I don't use FB but maybe when that 12 year old gets older they will start using it.
shreyshnaccount 5y ago
Can confirm, would've laughed too.
andrei_says_ 5y ago
This makes me happy. Facebook is abusive, evil, and lame. They’ve completely lost touch and deserve that laugh.

giancarlostoro 5y ago

I had no idea this was a thing, but I'm probably about the same, Discord is my main social media platform. Used to be HN.

crossroadsguy 5y ago
HN is/was a social media site? And discord a general social media site? From what I’ve seen of discord it comes across as a site for gamers around gaming world and then proceeding to include also those “interest groups” (ie eating Telegram’s lunch) where those people are active who keep messaging incessantly, memes, LOL kinda things and all. (I mean of course in a pedantic way a lot of site of the Internet will be considered social media sites but we are talking about Facebook specifically here)
- SllX 5y ago
  Yes, these are social networks. Arguably even a vBulletin forum is a social network and I’ve met some of my best friends in life on those when I was a young lad. If you can post somewhere as a person, build a reputation or identity there, interact with a community and build relationships: congrats, you have a social network. The mechanics of me replying to you on HN, sending an iMessage to a girl, sending a Slack message to my boss or posting to a group in Discord are nearly identical but the people and the intricacies of the software differ. This is one of the reasons I’ve never been a fan of the “Facebook is a social media monopoly” line of thinking, at least in America. Just doesn’t work if you sit down and think about it, it’s just another website that does a few things better than some others and they are massively successful because of what they’ve chosen to be good at. HN is a lot like /., Digg or very early Reddit to me, and it makes sense because it was started with a lot of the same ideas towards the end of that era, but with a purpose to serve Y Combinator’s needs.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- giancarlostoro 5y ago
  HN is a social network as much as LinkedIn. They might not look the same and have the same features, but people connect with each other in varying ways on here. Discord it depends, but if you join the right communities, it's like joining the perfect Facebook Groups.
pandemicPandaaa 5y ago

mathlover2 5y ago

> most of my social activity occurs on Discord. Same here.

mrfusion 5y ago

> most of my social activity occurs on Discord. Explain like I’m 60? How do you use it?

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
hprotagonist 5y ago
well, like IRC.
- edvinbesic 5y ago
  Stepped into that one
- herbst 5y ago
  Like IRC, but instead of controlling a server, channel or user account yourself you are in full merci of the auto ban bots on a closed platform. Instead of using one of thousands of thin clients you are forced to use one of their few thick ones, hungry for memory. And because nobody but discord can actually moderate, the platform is full of spam and scam. What they do against spam? Nothing, but requiring a phone number that works with their 2fa what automatically locks out people without a (supported) phone number, for a online chat.. what a time to be alive Just like IRC, but doing everything wrong that made IRC great.
  - hprotagonist 5y ago
    not disagreeing with anything there. i use irc more, myself. merely noting that the social interaction mode with other users is IRC style.
  - mcv 5y ago
    How does Discord spam work? I only really follow one Discord community (which has a few dozen channels), and it feels like the people organising it are in full control. I certainly haven't seen any spam there. It's a nice place to hang out with like-minded people (which in this case means middle-aged people who grew up with WFRP).

mesozoic 5y ago

Did he laugh at you for oculus or instagram?

decafninja 5y ago
Well, the subject of this topic is the original Facebook itself, not its other properties like Instagram. That said, if I'm not mistaken I think Instagram too is deemed to be something for "old" folks by the current set of teens, tweens, and younger twentysomethings.
- crmd 5y ago
  “The platform got better when children started using it” said no user ever.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
- hedora 5y ago
  The fortysomethings I know also think it's only for old folks. Do thirtysomething's still use Facebook ironically, or something?
  - tonyedgecombe 5y ago
    I was ridiculed in my local cafe for not having a Facebook account. This was by people in my age group (mid fifties). I had an account years ago but abandoned it as soon as they started to monetise (same for Twitter).
  - onaworkcomputer 5y ago
    > Do thirtysomething's still use Facebook ironically, or something? Not among my peers. Facebook is seen as a way to communicate with older and tech-challenged relatives. It's in the same category as LinkedIn -- a social network whose content is mostly cringe and that you're only on as a means to an end, not because it's a good product.

MrMan 5y ago

I have used discord intensively in the past but it was tightly linked to very narrow interests, like video games. I never discovered anything on discord, I rather got discord invites from other forums or what have you. Are there discovery features in discord I may not be aware of?

sam0x17 5y ago
The lack of discovery is precisely why it's so popular, in my opinion. Communities have a much easier time gatekeeping so you avoid redditization and have a much greater sense of privacy.
- celdon25 5y ago
  > much greater sense of privacy. This could have been the case, but Discord blocks me from making new accounts without a separate, expensive mobile phone number. You can’t even join most servers without having a bot ping your name publicly. This name is then searchable by any user in that server by searching for “mentions:yourcurrentname#tag”. This applies even if you changed your username since then. You also cannot turn off the ability for someone to see what mutual servers or mutual friends you have. Any of the above issues would be manageable as a single issue, but when combined, Discord is the worst tool for privacy, bar none.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - sam0x17 5y ago
    Privacy in the sense that zoomers' parents won't find their server.
throwuxiytayq 5y ago
There's always been endless third party websites, and I believe they added first-party discovery for public community servers a while ago. Community servers have been getting some serious features, too. They really are rapidly (and successfully) becoming something more like traditional social media.

jiscariot 5y ago

12 year-olds have always laughed at Facebook and instead used, X (kik, Snap, Tiktok, etc). They are a fickle bunch with no interest in being on the same platform as their parents. This is not anything new. I'd argue that the NYT's war on FB and Apple's policies around privacy (e.g. "Tracking your data" when FB and "Enhancing your user experience" when APPL).

ehnto 5y ago
Your view seems to ignore the temporal aspect, for one the original userbase of FB was students, they certainly weren't parents. FB hasn't been around that long, so to suggest anything has 'always' been the case ignores how this has been a very rapidly evolving ecosystem of software, from a generational point of view.
- waste_monk 5y ago
  You're missing the forest for the tree. It doesn't matter what software platforms or communications methods are involved - children (or rather descendants, since they may be adults) generally do not wish to share the same social platform as their parents / older relatives.
  - ehnto 5y ago
    I totally agree, that's the point of my comment even. This is a moving target, nothing 'always' about it. We're discussing the decline of facebook over time, and it started being popular with an entirely different age group than it is now. I also think it's worth noting these are relatively new phenomenon, we haven't even had social networks for long enough to pin down trends so absolutely.
  - sjg007 5y ago
    I appreciate my parents being on FB. But I’m an adult. I also left FB for a time though too. I think FB can do real psychological harm so you have to be psychologically prepared for it.
- ipaddr 5y ago

daniel-thompson 5y ago

> how will Facebook grow? Probably by buying the next up and coming networks, just like they did with Instagram and Whatsapp.

throwaway20222 5y ago
I think this would have certainly been in the cards in the past, but at least for the moment there is regulatory backlash against anything seen as anticompetitive, especially buyouts like you referenced. (I Work with M&A teams)FB is having to pay significantly above market to attract and retain talent, and the use patterns are not well aligned to homegrown competitors to tik tok. Some might argue this is why such a big bet is being placed on the “metaverse” business plan. But these trends may be the biggest long term challenge they have faced since the rise of mobile.
sjg007 5y ago
They can’t buy TikTok which is the big thing right now.
- UncleMeat 5y ago
  There will be a new big thing in five years or so. Meta makes enough money to bridge to that. They don't need to win every generation of social media.
sofixa 5y ago
There's no chance in hell regulators let them get away with it. They couldn't even acquire Giphy, let alone something more serious.

Simon_O_Rourke 5y ago

My little nephew categorized all Facebook users as "40 year old Moms drinking wine". Among a certain generation, the possession of a Facebook login is a cause for ridicule.

RonaldOlzheim 5y ago
Sounds legit
netizen-936824 5y ago
Well that's how I describe it too tbh
omosubi 5y ago
That kid knows what's up

mcv 5y ago

I don't mind being on a platform that's not used by 12 year olds. I'm looking for interesting social/political/philosophical/technological content and engagement, and I suspect only a minority of teenagers are really interested in that. And while teenagers are on Discord, my impression is that their content there isn't great either. The interesting stuff on Discord is also mostly from 40-somethings. Thing is, facebook has never been a great place for these things. I still have a FB account, but I haven't checked it in years, and back in the days when I did, there was only one person posting really interesting stuff. Everything else was just lame crap. For a while, I set FB to notify me when that guy posted anything and just ignored everything else, but I really wish he'd just post on a better platform.

namelessoracle 5y ago
Discord has a discovery problem. Your in channels you get invited to or made aware of, and most of those channels are echo chambers where the people running the channel are obsessed with getting you to post in them (even if its complete nonsense) There are some quality discord channels, but how do you learn about or get invited to them in the first place?
- mcv 5y ago
  In this particular case, one of my favourite RPG writers posted about it on MeWe. He, together with some other RPG writers, runs the place. It's tied to their Patreon, they organise talks and workshops for members. Most of the channels are about RPGs of course, but they have channels about tons of other topics too. One of my favourites is their channel about TV & movies, because there I get to discuss TV shows and movies with people who tend to have a similar taste as I do. It's absolutely an echo chamber; it's mostly people who grew up with British roleplaying games in the 1980s and still love them today. But it's a fun group.
shreyshnaccount 5y ago
Wikisocial comes to mind. Have you tried that?

culopatin 5y ago

I’m 30 and I don’t want anyone to know I open Facebook. I only use it for marketplace and to receive messages from my older relatives. I feel like it’s associated with dumb content and being manipulated to watch hollow nonsense. But I also don’t use TikTok for the same reasons. I do install Instagram every now and then because many of my friends send me memes there and I don’t want to ignore them forever, but it’s just a touch and go.

missedthecue 5y ago

Facebook is lucky to not have to chase the 12 year old market. They get bored quickly, have no money, and are impossible to keep interested for very long. Having the boomers is something everyone mocks FB for, and no one realizes it's why they're so successful.

pier25 5y ago

I don't use FB but maybe when that 12 year old gets older they will start using it.

shreyshnaccount 5y ago

Can confirm, would've laughed too.

andrei_says_ 5y ago

This makes me happy. Facebook is abusive, evil, and lame. They’ve completely lost touch and deserve that laugh.