Facebook

So, I know all of my friends are on facebook, but I just joined. I don't realize, yet, why it's supposedly so cool. Anyone care to enlighten me?

good way to keep in touch with friends. I there aare people that use it too much and are addicted but its a good tool. Like for example, when its someone's birthday, people are able to know.

Is this another myspace type of deal?

If I put in my work email, will I only be able to find work friends?

Yes Matty, you can.

Another good thing is that you can use it to organize parties. Like legit ones, beside the just word of mouth. You can create events and send it to your friends, its funny because just this yr in uva its getting really common, so you pretty much know where the parties are gonna be at if you know the right people.

I think it is really helpful.

I prefer myspace over facebook, just b/c most of my friends are on myspace, but facebook is cool for pictures for sure. He Sheriff, I just added you as a friend on facebook...

So I was going to post a thread about Facebook aging out when I stumbled across this 8 year old thread about Facebook that one of our long lost Warpath colleagues posted. The posts make me laugh now! You can tell that the younger crowd was really embracing it back in the day!

Nowadays, Facebook has aged out. The younger crowd is leaving Facebook in droves. Time magazine says that over 11 million young Facebook users have left Facebook since 2011. The reasons given are that Facebook has become a risky tool, has become overly complicated, and has been overrun by parents - and even grandparents!

It's almost like a virtual race. Teenagers and college age students race to the next "big thing" and leave it when their parents show up. So, off to the next social media app.

So the question is, what is the next big social app that us oldies will plan to invade? Will it be Snapchat? Google+? Or something else in the works that we don't know about yet? Personally, I vote for the good ol' days of programming your own website and creating old virtual communities like the days of old (90's).

Are you burying Facebook?

Are you burying Facebook?

Burying Facebook? Depends on how you look at it. In terms of the "coolness" factor, it's dead and buried. The younger generation has already moved on. They use SnapChat or Instagram. In terms of growth? It's no longer growing. It's reached its saturation point. However, it is not declining. And part of the reason why it is not declining is the fact that it's allowed itself to be integrated with all the other social media apps. That's the reason why it hasn't declined. It's had to change its approach to how it does business. But, in terms of the Facebook that overtook MySpace a few years ago, that Facebook is dead and gone.

Yeah, I agree. It's turned into an easy way that we old fogey's can keep up with our long lost friends or geographically distant family. It's a way for me to share pics of my kids with friends and family across the US, and for most them to do the same. I suspect that facebook is now an established entity (like ebay or amazon) and will remain strong. In fact, I suspect that some the kids who have abandoned facebook for now may "come back home" to it as their friends start moving away or share information with multi-generational friends and family. In many ways it has established itself as the world's personal weblog.

On the other hand, for the more "I am here" "I am doing cool stuff" "LOOK AT ME!!" narcissistic needs of teens and 20's, snap chat and instagram are the mediums.

Another up and coming one is "Yik Yak" which is becoming popular on colleges. It is essentially twitter and instagram (I think) but is only accessible by people in a specific geographic area - like a college campus and its immediate surrounds. Thus, for the most part, parents aren't included AND all your friends are. Not sure of all of its workings 'cause, well, I am a fogey and my friendships are no longer essentially based on geography.

26 years old and 3 kids and I haven't posted a single picture of them on Facebook