Is Social Media Destroying Society? Former Facebook Exec Says 'Yes'

[sugafree]

NT becoming a lot more social media-esque.

Recycled tweets, IG posts, memes, etc. all over the place.

Just like most news networks

 

[ceemcee]

My students can't survive without social media. It's legit crazy

 

[ceemcee]

I think the great thing about NT and various forums similar to this one is that people develop an actual sense of community. Maybe people feel more responsible for what they're posting so that becomes a kind of reminder to not wild out like they might do for instagram or snapchat...idk if that makes sense

 

[hand2handking]

i think the anonymity of sites like these creates a sense of equality between users discussions that other platforms cant provide

 

[ceemcee]

I can see that. Great point actually...Ironic that NOT being able to see anyone is what makes the difference

 

[storm2006]

NT becoming a lot more social media-esque.

Recycled tweets, IG posts, memes, etc. all over the place.

I don’t use social media but I actually enjoy that. Like in the political thread there are lots of tweets to articles and in the NBA thread there are links to IGs of top/big plays, press conferences, etc that I wouldn’t have seen otherwise. NT is kind of like a curator for me

 

[kingfoamnyc]

If 5-10 years we gonna have compatibility scores like that Black mirror episode

 

[hand2handking]

Teens Are Abandoning Facebook. For Real This Time.
If they made The Social Network today, it would just be A Social Network.

If they made The Social Network today, it would just be A Social Network.
BERTRAND GUAY/Getty Images

https://slate.com/technology/2018/0...tagram-to-facebook-2018-pew-survey-finds.html

Five years ago, a 13-year-old named Ruby Karp sent a shockwave through the social media world when she wrote a blog post for Mashable headlined, “I’m 13 and None of My Friends Use Facebook.” Curmudgeon that I was even then, I pushed back on the notion that Facebook was “hurtling toward irrelevance,” “the next Yahoo,” or facing “the beginning of the end,” as various headlines had it. I pointed out that a 2013 Pew Internet survey that year had found Facebook was by far the most popular social network among teens. Facebook insisted that its own data also showed engagement among younger users holding steady, although its precise comments on that are probably best forgotten. Point is: Facebook still had the loyalty of the kids.

Two years later, Pew canvassed the teens and their social media use again, and again it found Facebook in the top spot. Engagement may have been slipping, but only one rival was even close—Instagram—and Facebook owned that one too.

That was the last word from Pew—until this Thursday. For the first time in three years, the nonprofit conducted a new survey of teens focused on their social media use. And it’s now clear that Karp and her friends weren’t aberrations. They were just ahead of the curve.

Facebook is no longer the dominant social network among teens, according to Pew’s survey of 743 U.S. residents aged 13 to 17, conducted between March 7 and April 10, 2018. In fact, it’s no longer even in the top three. (A Facebook spokesperson declined to comment on the survey.)

The most popular social media sites among U.S. teens in 2015 (left) and 2018 (right), according to Pew Research Center.
Images courtesy of Pew Research Center

As the charts above show, YouTube, Instagram, and Snapchat have all surpassed Facebook in popularity. All three are used by more teens, and all three are more likely to be identified by teens as the social media platform they use most often. YouTube is used by the highest proportion (85 percent), while Snapchat is the one that the highest proportion say they use most often (35 percent). That loyalty factor is very good news for Snapchat, by the way, as it has been losing ground to Instagram along other metrics, such as user growth.

Does this mean YouTube is the new Facebook? Not exactly. Pew actually didn’t include YouTube in its earlier surveys, so we can’t know how it would have fared. And there’s good reason for not including it: Whereas Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter are all fundamentally social—that is, they’re places where most users post about their own lives—YouTube is more about passive consumption of content. It does have a social component, and users can of course post their own videos. But there’s a case to be made that it would fit more properly in a category with the likes of Netflix, Twitch, and Spotify.

Meanwhile, the survey does not include messaging services such as Whatsapp or iMessage, which could be considered rivals to Snapchat especially. This is not a full picture of what teens are doing with their screen time.

That said, it’s noteworthy that only 51 percent now say they use Facebook. That’s a dramatic drop from 2015, when 71 percent said the same. Even sharper has been the dropoff in those who identify Facebook as their most-used social platform: from 41 percent in 2015 to just 10 percent today.

The demographic trends aren’t working in Facebook’s favor, either, when it comes to advertising: Pew found that more of the teens still using Facebook are in lower income brackets, while its use among those whose households earn $75,000 or more is down to just 36 percent.

This still doesn’t mean Facebook is dying. It has become an essential Internet utility for much of the world, and remains so for many adults in the U.S., even as their offspring eschew it. It continues to grow, especially in developing countries.

It does, however, raise a warning flag for Facebook as the social network tries to fend off contrasting challenges from Snapchat and YouTube. Mark Zuckerberg last year announced a shift in focus from “passive consumption” of news and media to “meaningful interactions” between friends and family. But to the extent that teens remain a bellwether, it appears Facebook is losing ground on both fronts: The kids prefer YouTube for passive consumption, Instagram and Snapchat for self-expression and social interaction.

The large silver lining for Facebook, of course, is that it owns Instagram, and Instagram is doing just fine. But it should still concern the company that just 15 percent of teens say they spend more time on Instagram than other platforms. Facebook was built on hooking users at a young age and keeping them hooked as they grow up. Now it has to hope that young people who are growing up on rival platforms change their habits as they age.

 

[fluid hips]

People have/are migrating to Instagram which facebook owns.

 

[Nawzlew]

facebook for old folks now

i basically just use it for the marketplace/groups now

 

[esydc]

i think i qualify for the moment you realized you were washed thread because i hate instagram and the interface.

 

[DCAllAfrican]

Are you curious to find out how much you use your cell phone compared to other people? AntiSocial is designed to not only help you understand what ‘normal usage’ looks like, but to give you the tools to manage, block and control your cell phone usage so that you can unplug, minimize distractions and focus on the things that matter.

AntiSocial: phone addiction - Apps on Google Play https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.goozix.antisocial_personal&hl=en_US

I just put this on my phone. I only use FB and occasionally Twitter (PC), so I limited my FB time to 20 mins per day. I think we should set some limits, or at least try.

 

[thebtcbtq]

Anonymous echo chambers. Blame it on the Bay Area where all of these social media and tech companies reside.

 

[Deleted member 42060]

the guy has a point. that’s if it becomes too addictive and in the real world if you find it difficult to communicate to other people not on social media

 

[wayniac211]

Anonymous echo chambers. Blame it on the Bay Area where all of these social media and tech companies reside.

crazy Cuz 60s hippie movement started in frisco. Something in the water here that makes people change social norms

 

[thebtcbtq]

crazy Cuz 60s hippie movement started in frisco. Something in the water here that makes people change social norms

The culture has changed. Everything is based on immediate responses through a phone or computer screen. Patience is lost and in-person communication is becoming devalued.

 

[VARNELL HILL]

I don't have anything now. No IG, FB, Twitter, SC, etc.

NT is enough social media for me

 

[sharpshooter718]

I don't have anything now. No IG, FB, Twitter, SC, etc.

NT is enough social media for me

Cut fb off in december, haven't been that active on IG all year... mostly go on twitter for news and whatever trending ....

I'm on NT more than anything else...

Social media has lost is niche...

 

[thebtcbtq]

If Google, Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram donated 1 day's worth of their profits out of the year directly to community efforts, it would fix the financial shortcomings associated with the issues the Bay Area has with homelessness and education. It's not just those companies that have the ability to help and choose not to. Apple, Samsung, Microsoft, HP, and Oracle could help as well as every major banking institution.

 

[Deleted member 42060]

Former Facebook Exec Who Suggested Social Media Was Destroying Society: I Love Facebook

https://gizmodo.com/former-facebook-exec-who-suggested-social-media-was-des-1821328123

jackass

 

[sooperhooper]

It's getting so bad. Everywhere I go I see groups of people "together" but all on their phone. Women on sc filming their entire body top to bottom. People in the car looking at their phone while driving. I'm so eager to know how things will be in 5 or 10 years, how much worse will society be? We're already out of touch with one another, now this just makes it worse... Or maybe it just soothes the pain of the separation we face.
That stat above about tech companies and the homeless isn't surprising one bit.

 

[DCAllAfrican]

Goodbye, Twitter – Jeremy Botter – Medium

 

[DCAllAfrican]

It's getting so bad. Everywhere I go I see groups of people "together" but all on their phone. Wild on sc filming their entire body top to bottom. People in the car looking at their phone while driving. I'm so eager to know how things will be in 5 or 10 years, how much worse will society be? We're already out of touch with one another, now this just makes it worse... Or maybe it just soothes the pain of the separation we face.
That stat above about tech companies and the homeless isn't surprising one bit.

Seeing families out eating together, while on their phones, is sad to see man.

Rule at the table, No Phones

 

[PRIME]

Goodbye, Twitter – Jeremy Botter – Medium

He left Twitter and is encouraging people to connect with him through Facebook.

He’s old though. Facebook has become the social network graveyard for old people.


The problem that I’ve had with Facebook for a long time now has always been its trying to reach too many people. They’re the amazon of social networks. They want to have a product for everyone.

What made them exclusive and appealing to the youth is what they abandoned.

Makes no difference to their bottom line (for now), but in my opinion Facebook needs to rethink their universal platform. The site spans too broad of a spectrum.

Instagram is starting to do too much also. That IGTV thing is dumb imo

 

[hand2handking]

Zuckerberg Effectively Defends Right of Holocaust Deniers to be Heard on Facebook


Mark Zuckerberg speaks at a 2017 developers conference in San Jose.

https://www.marketwatch.com/discover?url=https://www.marketwatch.com/amp/story/guid/9a183256-8ab4-11e8-9630-dc95d729fafc&link=sfmw_tw#https://www.marketwatch.com/amp/story/guid/9a183256-8ab4-11e8-9630-dc95d729fafc?mod=dist_amp_social

‘I find [Holocaust deniers] deeply offensive. But at the end of the day, I don’t believe that our platform should take that down because I think there are things that different people get wrong. I don’t think that they’re intentionally getting it wrong.’

That’s Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, all but inviting, during a Recode interview in which he sought to explain why the social network FB-0.3% permits controversial and inflammatory sources to maintain their voices on the platform, a wholly new controversy.

On the rival social platform Twitter TWTR-3.06% , many users wondered whether Zuckerberg — having drawn a line between Holocaust denialism and, say, the long-standing claim by Alex Jones of InfoWars and others that the Newtown, Conn., elementary-school massacre of December 2012 was staged, calling out the latter as a falsehood — was actually suggesting the facts of the Holocaust were not settled:









Recode’s Kara Swisher, who conducted the interview with Zuckerberg, had in real time briefly interrupted the Facebook leader to note that Holocaust denial does not tend to arise from an innocent misreading of history.

Quite the contrary, said the Anti-Defamation League, which suggested Facebook abrogates an important duty in allowing the dissemination of Holocaust denial:



Swisher later tweeted that Zuckerberg had sought to clarify his remarks as something other than a defense of denialists: