this post was submitted on 25 Mar 2024
525 points (96.0% liked)

Ask Lemmy

31570 readers
1488 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either [email protected] or [email protected]. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email [email protected]. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try [email protected] or [email protected]


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

I read "it's dying" by people on Discord and Reddit all the time, but the numbers prove otherwise. It's been going up this entire time and sitting over 3 billion MONTHLY ACTIVE USERS!

I feel like the bubble around people on other platforms saying "who uses Facebook anymore lol" is kind of wild given the numbers. Keep in mind these are active users not just abandoned accounts.

(page 2) 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I'm one of those people. I'm only using messenger, but since I message people from desktop (and I don't want to install their client, they know enough about me already), I still have to log in to the base Facebook page. After a while I started using the Feed Eradicator plugin (or what), but unfortunately I still have to log in if I want to be able to message my acquaintances.

Why am I still using Facebook messenger? Back when most of the users were still unaware about their practices, all of my friends and family joined and now it is their main way of communication. There's no way everyone important to me would just start using a second social media platform for me. Also, I can't make calls from desktop WhatsApp (which could still have a chance to become a substitute for most of the people I know). Anything else is just too niche for most of them to install for the sake of one person. Or three.

I wish there was a good practical solution because I'd prefer not being part of this ugly machine, but until then, I'll have to stick with it.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I only had a fake Facebook account that expired. Why is it so popular?

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It looks to me like "social media" breaks down into a few categories: Video/image sharing (YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Douyin, Kuaishou); Messaging (WhatsApp, WeChat, FB Messenger, Telegram, Snapchat, QQ); Microblogging (Twitter, Weibo); and tangled fog of pulsating yearning (Pinterest).

Then, there's Facebook, which defies easy categorization. It does all of the above, plus more. It's how people maintain loose connections with other people that they may not talk to every day. What is its competition? Basically, I think it remains popular because it's the default, nothing else can replace it.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (3 children)

None of the socmeds I use are listed there.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

None of the socmeds I use are listed there.

And they are?

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Because people have those family members who insist on doing everything on Facebook Messenger, and that Signal or even fucking Whatsapp is too fiddly for them. So everyone ends up with the lowest common piece of shit network, and it counts them as active users whether they actually use it or not and just happens to be checking for messages in the background.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (3 children)

That is exactly it for me. I use Messenger to talk to friends and family in Thailand and they refuse to use Signal or Telegram. A few do use Line but 90% will only use FB and Messenger.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

You aren't going to want to hear it, but it's the only social media still around that's actually useful in some way.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

IMHO popular culture is not popular because it's the best, it's because of some combination of corruption and being the "lowest common denominator". Popular culture is cultural detritus and Facebook is a prime representation of it.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

Network effect. That's why we need to keep the fediverse alive: so futur generation aren't forced to signed into Facebook, Discord or whatever would be (or would have been) trendy.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Because non technically savvy people get comfortable and it's always difficult to get them to move, so everyone who wants to change, can't because they end up alone and social media only works if you have people to be social with. Younger people will have the same problem with TikTok and the like when their friends age and they want to move. Only new generations start with a clean slate and can get all their friends to start out at the new sites.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Yep, inertia.

[–] [email protected] 42 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Facebook was extremely aggressive in getting their software preloaded on all hardware sold in developing areas over the last 20 years. So countries like India (with one and a half billion people by itself) have a large segment of users that think Facebook is the internet. It's Zucks ultimate walled garden.

3 billion of those people likely access Facebook for everything that we think of as online. Commerce, social networking, music, videos, it's all on Facebook.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Just like how people thought AOL was the Internet 20 years back.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

You joke but Lemmy is at the same point as Reddit was when they first started. Reddit just IPO'd at 34/share, up to 68 now. 12 billion USD valuation.

I think Lemmy has a lot more potential than most people think it does... The idea is laughable, but so was $12 billion reddit in 2008 . Not in monetary terms, but in how information could be communicated throughout the world in 20 years.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Those sound like financial fraud numbers

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Reddit lived because DIGG died. Or at least it got a bump in the right direction

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments
view more: ‹ prev next ›