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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.
Facebook Marketplace, it is literally the only reason I even use it.
I use Facebook. I am not in touch with very many of my relatives. The few that I am in touch with are all on Facebook. I also live a significant distance from pretty much all of my friends and that's a way I can keep in touch with them. On top of that, my brother, who is on the spectrum, prefers to communicate with me that way. In fact, I would probably never hear from him until my mother died if I didn't because he's never called or emailed me.
But... here is how I use Facebook: I only follow select friends and relatives who aren't too annoying- which means following about 10-15 people and unfollowing all the others, I tell it every time I see an ad I never want to see again, and I am only in groups that are either small and personally significant to me (like the group for my relatives) and a couple of others that I mostly just look at and don't participate in.
No arguments, no political unpleasantness, nothing that makes me angry or upset unless something bad is happening to someone I care about, and honestly it's not unpleasant. I think I've maybe blocked three people the entire time I've been on Facebook and all three did something personal to me offline that made me decide to cut off contact with them.
Sure, they're hoovering up my data, but so is everyone else.
3 billion monthly active sure sounds a little excessive. I wonder if there's some shenanigans going on, combining other facebook's services.
Where I'm from. Facebook is free of charge on data connections on some Telcos.
That's why almost all people with data connection, whether pre paid or post paid are most likely using Facebook.
This says nothing about how much they use reach platform though. Just logging into Facebook and checking what's up over a month will count here.
People don't really delete their facebook account. Just keep it around. And at one point I'm pretty sure everyone had an account.
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.
Does those number include people that only use the account with other pages widgets? Like "access with your Meta account" and shit like that.
It fulfils roles as
It's large enough that any amount of enshittification is compensated by network effect.
It'll probably stay insanely popular until the boomers die off. They're not gonna switch to another one, but I don't any of the younger gens gravitating toward it.
A while back I remember hearing "dying" was only accurate in the West, but that was a matter of years ago so it may or may not still be true.
Because that is where the regular people are and I for one won't be bothered to try convince them otherwise because I know it is futile. I'll just check in every now and then to keep in touch with them and that's why I'm still there.
This is it. Lemmy users are completely unaware of the extent to which they are not like normal people.
old people like their bigotry and conspiracy theory echo-chamber. it's the only place they can spew that garbage after their kids cut contact with them.
I use it because it has what I want.
It has my local community group who discuss ideas and plan events. It has my mother's group who only use Facebook messenger to communicate. It has my extended family who live overseas. If I left and asked them to send me pictures I would only get a few a year, this way I see pics every week.
Do I hate the idea of it? Yes. Would I like to delete my account? Yes. Is the trade-off worth it for me to stay? Also yes.
A significant number of those are not from the USA.
I didn't even have an account when I lived in France because only old people used it, and I didn't understand the billions users figures either.
But since I live in canada I need facebook to do anything, everyone uses it. If I want to get in a bar, they ask me for my Facebook to check my age. When I get a package I only get notified on Facebook. News by my school are only published on Facebook...
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.
I'm in Canada, and I'm pretty locked into Facebook for a few things: