Is Facebook On The Decline?

[Wyndru]

Blake Snow, a freelance writer from CNN thinks so. I don't know how valid the numbers are, but here is the report.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/social.media/06/20/people.shunning.facebook/index.html

Doug Gross thinks so too.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/social.media/06/13/facebook.dropping.america/index.html

(CNN) -- There's no denying the cultural impact of Facebook. It has united almost 700 million people, including most of you reading this, becoming the greatest social introduction platform the world has ever seen.

But there are also some recent signs of "Facebook fatigue." There is only so much you can do to socialize online, especially after you've exhausted your friend list. Some people also complain they're spending so much time on Facebook that they're short-changing the rest of their lives.

Evidence suggests a small but increasing number of users -- at least in North America, where Facebook use is especially saturated -- may be shunning the site. The site lost more than 7 million active users in the United States and Canada last month, according to data from the blog Inside Facebook, although Facebook disputes those figures.

Is a loss of 7 Million active subscribers a lot for facebook? I expect it to fizzle out like myspace at some point, but 7 million lost doesn't seem like a lot when there are over 650 million accounts.

My wife and I haven't logged on in a while, and only a few of our friends are using the site anymore. We are in our 30's though, and have a daughter now. Many of our friends have children too, so all we do is email each other our flickr or picasa links.

Anyone else recently left facebook or haven't logged on in a while?

 

[zokudu]

I feel like facebook is the laggiest and slowest piece of garbage on the internet. Its the only site that is practically unusable at times while every other website I use runs fine.. Due to this I have closed my facebook account as well.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

I have been debating whether or not to delete my account for quite some time and am leaning towards doing it or maybe at a minimum, deleting just about all the content off my site and just leaving the blank site there for distant friends to contact me through.

 

[Imp]

"Used" it, as in I made an account, and logged in once every few weeks, for half a year. Closed it a few months ago. I didn't give two shits about any of the people on there.

The ones I care about, I e-mail daily, talk to, or converse with using more than 10 words left on a "wall" and some semblance of proper grammar.

I still have a stalker account though.

 

[moshquerade]

It will peak, and then wane some, but I don't see it fading away like myspace has.

 

[JS80]

It has peaked in terms of user base, however it's only in it's infancy in terms of monetization of traffic.

 

[lxskllr]

Never had an account. I've almost created one a couple of times to follow commercial entities, but never did. My daughter likes it.

I don't see it going anywhere any time soon. It isn't the newest toy anymore, so the people that shouldn't have had an account in the first place, are dropping it. The people that find value in the site will continue to use it. I don't see anything else that does what facebook does, so a mass exodus is unlikely.

 

[Wyndru]

I do think it will fade out eventually though. People said the same things about MySpace staying around forever, yet when the fad was over it turned into the abandoned amusement park of the web, and quickly.

I think FB does a great job right now in keeping it updated it and adding new features, but it's a slippery slope. If they add too much stuff that it gets annoying or they shift their demo to little kids, a lot of people will jump ship.

Without a doubt there will be something around to replace it...social networking websites don't exactly require genius programmers to develop. It's all about the popularity of the site, which IMO could shift just as quick as myspace did.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

FB never interested me. I made an account once with fake info to get in on a free offer some company had and then deleted it.

 

[the DRIZZLE]

I use it only because certain clubs that I'm in use it to distribute information. If it wasn't for that I'd probably delete my account.

 

[Bill Brasky]

I have an account for networking purposes, but I don't log on more than once a week usually.

 

[Bateluer]

I MUCH prefer Meetup and Daily Mile for social networking. Facebook is a shit pile.

 

[zzuupp]

No, it has reached saturation.

 

[Leros]

Are people moving to something else or is the idea of social network dying?

 

[thescreensavers]

It will peak, and then wane some, but I don't see it fading away like myspace has.

Exactly, its already integrated into society. With Phones and status updates..ect

I dont see how it will fade away any more, unless something else comes out which is some how substantially better.

 

[Anubis]

i post completely random shit about once a week to see if i can get a response out of people

 

[Leros]

i post completely random shit about once a week to see if i can get a response out of people

We know about your shitty posts on ATOT, but what about Facebook?

 

[HAL9000]

I think it's on it's way up still, when I meet someone we don't exchange phone numbers anymore, we just add each other on facebook...

 

[XJustMeX21]

Facebook made me realize how annoying most members of my family really are.

 

[Anubis]

We know about your shitty posts on ATOT, but what about Facebook?

 

[Newbian]

I use it really only for some of the great games they have, that's about it.

 

[MikeMike]

People do not realize that for half of Facebooks 'population' it is to the internet as AOL was to dial up users...

 

[coreyb]

Facebook made me realize how annoying most members of my family really are.

lol, I feel the same way. I like to troll my family from time to time.

 

[dmcowen674]

Was just another fad especially for women.

 

[Newbian]

Was just another fad especially for women.

Kind of like the internet was another fad...