I've seen a lot less engagement with my Facebook posts in the last couple years, and been shown a lot fewer posts from my friends compared to groups, ads, and "

I've seen a lot less engagement with my Facebook posts in the last couple years, and been shown a lot fewer posts from my friends compared to groups, ads, and "suggested" posts. I used to wonder if it was primarily because Facebook was openly downranking news and politics, and my friends and I posted about those things a lot more than your average users. Now I think it's just because most of them have silently stopped using the platform -- but I think a big reason for that is we figured that if no one is going to see our stuff, then why post it at all? In other words, anticipating the algorithm led to a kind of chilling effect on our usage in general, at least for my own behavior. Not that Internet political arguments have gone great with the current platforms and their incentives, but I don't like the idea that they might not happen at all, especially at a time that seems as important to discuss as this one.