Facebook Biting The Dust Among Youth?

Ah, the inexorable march of technology. It’s a tale as old as recorded history. I knew I wouldn’t be spared, but realizing that the tech I grew up with is not the tech others grow up with is humbling.

The excellent Pew Research Center recently issued the report “Teens, Social Media and Technology 2023.” There’s a ton of interesting nuggets, but what struck me in particular was Facebook’s fall.

71% of U.S. teenagers used Facebook in 2014–2015. In 2023, the share has dropped to 33%. That’s huge, and especially shocking to me. Facebook was one of the first social media sites I ever used. It was everywhere, synonymous with the idea of social media, and almost everyone I knew used it. Facebook’s founding was dramatized in The Social Network (2010). You know you’re a big deal when you get a movie less than a decade after your creation.

I suppose the introduction of Facebook and social media was akin to the emergence of the radio or TV. When you’re the only game in town, you control the market by default. Now, alternatives such as Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram (owned by Meta, Facebook’s parent company) and YouTube have usurped its position.

As a quick side note, the fact that Facebook has to fight to regain its dominant position gives me hope for the free market. Despite its status as a pioneer, Facebook isn’t guaranteed dominance forever. It has to continue to provide value by differentiating itself from its competitors.

According to a 2021 internal Facebook presentation, “most young adults perceive Facebook as a place for people in their 40s and 50s. Young adults perceive (its) content as boring, misleading and negative. They often have to get past irrelevant content to get to what matters.”

The first sentence makes me wince, as I’m now closer to 40 than 18. The second I understand. Facebook was designed to be addictive. Politicians and advertisers have spent, spend and will spend a boatload on to reach users, who are the actual product. Furthermore, average people often get into their own echo chambers, refusing to consider other opinions and going on long winded rants about controversial topics.

It’s unclear whether other social media sites are an improvement. TikTok has been criticized as addictive, due to its algorithm that keeps recommending similar content to what one has watched previously, mimicking Facebook. The same charge has been levied against YouTube, Instagram and Snapchat.

The algorithms and recommendation programs are working. 71% of teens use YouTube, 58% use TikTok, 51% use Snapchat and 49% use Instagram daily.

Moving beyond individual social networking sites, the share of teens who are ‘almost constantly’ online has gone from 24% in 2014–2015 to 46% in 2023. That’s incredible. Back in my day, you went outside and played your Gameboy or something, rather than sit on a phone!

Crummy old man jokes aside, I believe we have to do something about social media addiction and usage. I detailed some solutions in my 2022 article “The Tyranny of the Screens.”

To conclude, it still tickles me how much social media has changed in 15 years. Every generation has a different experience, and social media is no exception.

Will we learn from social media’s mistakes to protect the younger generations?

That’s a question we need to keep asking.