So are we finally seeing the waning days of Facebook?

This is what I don't get. There are plenty of products and services in the world that I have no interest in using; doesn't mean I want them to die.

 

I think it's pretty funny that people are leaving facebook because of drama. Cause it's the format that causes the drama and not the people using it. Especially drama.

I like facebook. I have a close extended family that I live far away from and it's a great way to stay in each other's lives. It's a handy way to keep up with things that old friends are doing. And by old friends I mean people you don't necessarily want to see but think fondly of and like to see what they are up to. I even enjoy the way I can keep up with celebrities and get updates from different businesses. I think it's matured but and different than it once was but it's a part of our lives in a way that the phone book used to be and I think it will be that way for the foreseeable future.

 

I chalk it up to people hating what is popular and Mainstream. Look at music. There are probably many Nickelback fans, but you would be hardpressed to find them on the internet because of the extreme hatred they generate. Same thing with Facebook. It's the biggest thing online (Ok, maybe second biggest behind Twitter) and people love it when big things fail, at least online people.

 

This started happening a few years ago. I was tipped off by my teenage daugther who told me that while a lot of middleschoolers were still facebook (a lot of whom didn't have phones yet but had computer access at home) that most high-schoolers had migrated to twitter. The reason was that too many parents were on Facebook and kids don't want their parents to know what they are doing. Very few parents were and are on twitter.

With two kids in middle school I can also say that within the last year instagram has far surpassed facebook for that age. There are also a couple of other chat programs being used that I can't think of offhand. But basically, programs that you can use on your phone/tablet but aren't on the computer are preferred because parents aren't that tech savvy and are less likely to be on those social mediums.

Facebook has become a medium of older folks. I bet the median age has skyrocketed in the past 5 years . . . probably doubled (true ages though, not the fake ages a lot of kids were putting on their accounts).

 

Yeah I got into facebook again for a while to organize media stuff, I have some friends who are film makers, do the whole improv comedy thing, or music and some who do DJ stuff or animation. There were a whole bunch of us who did some music when we were younger and we network years later. Now we would meet up, go to conventions, make short films, they could be doing something on country music or hiphop or a movie or whatever. It wasn't really work for me just a hobby, I have other work going and for me this improv comedy or film or DJ stuff was just an outlet where I'd hang out with friends, a social creative past time and hobby. I wasn't really too into the music so much or comedy or into art business but kinda became something of an art promoter for a social night once a month or I might do something for a charity event. The whole networking social thing kicked off pretty quick, one day I had say 20 facebook friends and within a few months maybe weeks you have 200 and I wasn't even looking for friends, they just add you.

Anyway I found the place to become as useless as myspace or friendster. Facebook if you allow yourself to become part of these networks then it has way too much spam, the people there are not friendly they all want to sell you some crap or want you to do under-paid work for their benefit, it becomes Stalkbook, Stalkerbook or Spambook. It can be ok if you are careful with it but I probably added too many acquaintance and not real close friends. So my name is out there now and when this happens you get a lot of buying messages, brands, swap, selling or some idiot trying to promote their horrible music.

There is also a hell of a lot of time wasting and gossip on facebook, so many spammers, sleazy guys and stupid women have ruined it. You have to be very careful about foreign regions, I hear a whole city in Dhaka Bangladesh had thousands of their accounts hacked so you have to be real careful networking with anyone from South Asia because they are probably robot spammers and so many even in real-life spam and are trying to promote a political agenda. Once your name is out there and you accept friend requests from musicians and so on you spend too much time looking at all these stupid messages. Facebook overall has way too much drama, much gossip, people being bitchy, general negativity and conflict. I found some of the online stupidity very regionalized, people from L.A generally use it as a party dating site and can be very crazy or very selfish, the arty film making and DJ crowd can be bitchy and full of drama, no matter where they live its just something that follows musicians around. With a hundred 'acquaintances' this social circle you can log on check out that rolling wall of text and see all kinds of stupid drama, who is getting a divorce from who, which person posting stupid jokes, which person is being creppy today, someone posting LOLCATS again, which cheaters are caught in some location with the pix on their profile, a person using it as a personal blog and talking about what they ate for breakfast, a person taking about the dog vomiting in their bed...yuck, a person talking about their sexual habbits....yuck, which person is starting a controversial political debate, who had an affair with who.

If I were to start again I would erase my account and only use it to keep in touch with very old friends, mom, aunts, uncles or old friends who have moved away to Canada, France, Brazil and Australia. Or maybe if I got back into this film and music business again I would delete my name and start a promoting account so my personal account doesn't see any of the personal gossip drama.


I'm not sure Twitter or whatever is the answer, I think some people are just naturally gossipy, or stupid and drama will follow them around no matter what online social media they move to