I got to thinking more about our class discussion on Friday and thought I would look into the topic.
What is it that drives us away from social media? Is it the
ads that bombard our timeline or is it the people who have become part of your
online world?
They say things never go out of style and that seems to be
true. Things that our parents wore have started to re-emerge in stores today. I
see that idea happening in reverse with Facebook. I don’t think that Facebook
will be gone soon, but it does have tough competition. Interactivity has been dominated by Twitter. The picture aspect that Facebook
once held on to is also fading as Instagram becomes increasingly popular.
I wouldn't count Facebook out just yet. In an article by the Los Angeles Times it discusses that the majority of new users on Facebook have come from those in the
50-64 year old range. For teens and young adults Facebook being invaded by
parents and other family was a turn off. For the older generation it was new undiscovered territory that they decided to be apart of. Do you remember when you first got a Facebook? If you look back a couple years at your history I bet you'll find you
made numerous posts. I find it fairly entertaining to look at what I was saying
back then. That excitement that we once had is now in the hands of our parents.
What was ours is now theirs. We have moved on and found new ways to
interact with apps such as Vine, and Snapchat.
I have to wonder though, if in time parents and family will
soon join us on our new sites. If they were to join us on Twitter and Instagram
would we move away from those too, or would we think that being Facebook
friends is enough?
I think that not being able to separate our lives into our friends, family, and work is what drew us to other media like Twitter. There it is easy to have a professional and personal persona. In another article I found on HubPages, it uncovers several other issues that may be causing Facebook's decline.
I'd love to see how you guys react to these articles after having our discussion in class!
I agree that when family members are on these sites it drives the younger generation away and on to new ones. I myself refuse to add my own uncle on Facebook. Although, I do find it common that people are okay with being friends with their friends parents but not their own. I think knowing that are family members can see everything we post it was makes us not want to me on the site, it is almost like there is no privacy between family and friends. I think people would move away if family followed them to sites like Twitter just like they did with Facebook. Like Facebook, I do not think it would fade out but people would not use it as much.
ReplyDeleteFor me just because my family member has a Facebook its not driving me away from using it. I use Facebook more than I use Twitter mostly because all my friends are on Facebook and they don't really use Twitter. I don't think that peoples family members having a Facebook would affect them using it because that family member could just as easily get a Twitter and follow you on there. What difference would it truly make? They can either be your friend on Facebook and see your stuff, or they could follow you on Twitter and still have that access.
ReplyDeleteIt's good that you made the point about the picture aspect of Facebook slowly fading due to the rise in popularity of Instagram. Whenever I look at my News Feed on Facebook, I always see people uploading pictures, but the pictures are actually coming from Instagram. I do think, however, that maybe a reason the picture aspect is declining on Facebook is because of the older generation. Whenever I post a picture, I consistently see my aunt or grandma commenting all over the picture.
ReplyDeleteI got away from Facebook only because all my friends switched to Twitter, so I had to get one to keep up. But the more I used Twitter and didnt have my entire family commenting all over it, I began to like it more, until one day I get a reply tweet from my dad, so now they are on Twitter and theres nothing I can do about it. I use Instagram and so do they, its just an aspect of life we have to accept that they are catching up with us. I do think that Instagram is taking over the picture aspect of all social media now though so that is a good point to bring up.
ReplyDeleteI believe that Facebook is mostly used for our family to stay connected with us. I got away from Facebook because I was bored with it and I didn't like the feeling of being monitored all the time. Not that I was posting anything terribly wrong, it's just the feeling that you could get called out. I don't think that Facebook will go anywhere but for the age group that does use it, I believe that they will stay with it. From talking to my parents one of them uses Facebook the other has no idea what's going on. For their particular age group 50+ I believe they wont go beyond it.
ReplyDeleteI have a lot of family members on Facebook, such as my mom and aunt, and my dad just got a Twitter so he could follow all of the baseball teams. I have no problem being friends with my family on social media because I think having parents on social media filters some of what we say. I don't post things on social media that I wouldn't mind my parents seeing and I think this is good for us to have this kind of filter on the things we say.
ReplyDeleteThanks, everyone, for the comments. Very interesting perspectives, and it's great to see stuff we bring up in class follow on with comments here in the blog.
ReplyDelete