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Social media decline: Users are shifting to messaging apps and group chats

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Re: Social media decline: Users are shifting to messaging apps and group chats

#251

Post by madrox »

I've been predicting this trend for years, and it's validating to see someone else say it. It isn't even just messaging apps. Discord and Twitch are also killing social media usage. It's any walled community where people within the community get to decide who is in and who is out, and the reach of casual sharing is limited. Social media can't counter this trend, because it's not in line with their incentives (massive sharing and virality).

Social media companies are going to have to react to this eventually. If I had to guess, they're going to go harder into content production.

Re: Social media decline: Users are shifting to messaging apps and group chats

#252

Post by paganel »

acjacobson wrote: post #247
paganel wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How did we end up like this? Because sharing personal stuff privately, on group chats, groups made up of close friends, family etc., is the normal thing to do, sharing our personal stuff on FB, IG and the like was the exception. No, it was definitely not ok to share photos of one's unborn baby on FB/IG for almost anyone to see, that was creepy. Glad that things are returning to a sort of normal.

For a long time Facebook was friends only - so what you posted was only visible to people you knew. They slowly changed the default to friend of friends and then public and that changed the whole feel.

Nobody in their real mind has more than 10, let's say 15 close-ish friends (with whom to share photos of your unborn baby, for example), as such Facebook was never really about friends, it was more about acquaintances.

Re: Social media decline: Users are shifting to messaging apps and group chats

#253

Post by jarjoura »

nitwit005 wrote: post #212

If social media means a way to communicate with friends, family, and extended community online, it's pretty clear Meta and Tiktok don't want their products to be that. They've made sure you can't get a feed of just your friends. It's natural the people who want that sort of thing will go elsewhere.

Meta and I'm sure TikTok as well, would be MORE than happy to follow wherever users want to take the platform. The problem is, time and time again, users do not want what they say they want.

Re: Social media decline: Users are shifting to messaging apps and group chats

#254

Post by SeanAnderson »

paganel wrote: post #252
acjacobson wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For a long time Facebook was friends only - so what you posted was only visible to people you knew. They slowly changed the default to friend of friends and then public and that changed the whole feel.

Nobody in their real mind has more than 10, let's say 15 close-ish friends (with whom to share photos of your unborn baby, for example), as such Facebook was never really about friends, it was more about acquaintances.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar%27s_number Just in case you weren't aware :)

Re: Social media decline: Users are shifting to messaging apps and group chats

#255

Post by screwturner68 »

paganel wrote: post #252
acjacobson wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For a long time Facebook was friends only - so what you posted was only visible to people you knew. They slowly changed the default to friend of friends and then public and that changed the whole feel.

Nobody in their real mind has more than 10, let's say 15 close-ish friends (with whom to share photos of your unborn baby, for example), as such Facebook was never really about friends, it was more about acquaintances.

It was for college kids, it was for hooking up.

Re: Social media decline: Users are shifting to messaging apps and group chats

#256

Post by screwturner68 »

usea wrote: post #210
mancerayder wrote: post #154

I've been observing a pattern that I've been trying to articulate here and I can best describe as a framework where stuff 'comes to you' whereas the Internet for a long time was an enabler of 'you go to stuff'. The pendulum swung back, thanks to ad tech, and centralization, that have or are trying to orchestrate a culture shift. Okay, here are some concrete examples. 1. Television/cable (absent a TiVo type device), t…

A similar concept is whether something is a "tool" or not. Tools are things that you use to accomplish tasks. They behave predictably, and you can become skilled in using it more effectively. Non-tools are things that try to adapt to you. They're optimized for first-time users, or to create an "experience". You cannot go fast with them, even with familiarity. They don't act in your best interests. A hammer is a tool.…

But a tool for the most part is open source, a screw driver is a screw driver, if you turn a screwdriver to the right it pushes a screw into the wood. It doesn't take notes of the type of wood you are using and then strongly suggest that you buy walnut from Home Depot.

Re: Social media decline: Users are shifting to messaging apps and group chats

#257

Post by jacobwilliamroy »

I stopped posting frequently when I realized I was putting my name on a thing in a public database, and that most hiring processes these days involve putting my real name in google and looking at whatever pops out. I still post nowadays, but it's usually under a pseudonym, from a VM, through a VPN, over HTTPS. I should probably look into encrypting my DNS too.

Nowadays when I'm posting in the clear with my real name I usually stop and think "Would someone hire me if they read this?" and then delete everything I wrote and just move on with my life.

Re: Social media decline: Users are shifting to messaging apps and group chats

#258

Post by soderfoo »

markdown wrote: post #241
kelseyfrog wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My mastodon feed is 100% actual friends. That reality exists; it's just not evenly distributed yet.

> 100% actual friends But no family because they'd never figure out how to use the damned thing, amirite?

And if they do join, there is the implicit SLA of ongoing support anytime issues arise.

Re: Social media decline: Users are shifting to messaging apps and group chats

#259

Post by pizzafeelsright »

nightowl_games wrote: post #128

Social Media started it's down fall ~2008 when the teachers and parents joined facebook. I remember when facebook was _only_ the fellow kids you knew. There were inside jokes, offensive stuff, lots of pure text posts. It was _way_ different. Parents and teachers joined, a couple kids got in trouble for what they posted on facebook, and everyone stopped using it freely.

We call that "the public" and it's why restricted spaces with barriers to entry exist.

Allowing Z people to keep X people out of their groups and vice versa.

Re: Social media decline: Users are shifting to messaging apps and group chats

#260

Post by zeta0134 »

kelseyfrog wrote: post #217
brap wrote: post #215

My Facebook feed is about 40% sponsored posts, 30% suggested posts, 30% group posts (usually from very large groups), and then maybe 1% actual friends (and it’s usually just something that they’ve shared or commented on, almost never actual content). If we could go back to the days when 80% of the stuff you see is from friends with the remaining being ads, I would happily use FB more frequently and I’m sure most of m…

My mastodon feed is 100% actual friends. That reality exists; it's just not evenly distributed yet.

Probably the nicest bonus feature of Mastodon is that I can subscribe to a friend's original posts but unsubscribe to their "boosts," which is Mastodon's way to quickly share content. This way I can follow artists that make cool stuff I want to keep up with, but I don't have to see their political reblogs and other interactions, which helps to cut down considerably on the noise.

It's great because it's granular at the friend level. Some of my follows do legitimately act as curators, infrequently boosting cool content that I do want to see. Some are more noisy, and I can pick and choose and tailor my own feed accordingly. It's a nice happy medium, one I'd like to see other platforms emulate if possible, but I suspect they won't because the algorithmic feed is much easier for advertisers to pay to manipulate.

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