James' World 2

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Facebook is the most used social media platform in Western markets (not including YouTube, which may host user-generated content but is not typically considered in the same category). Yet, the broad consensus, from competitors to Gen Z, is that the platform is ‘dead’. Why?

Notably, it is most prominently used by older demographics. Facebook is by far the most popular platform among over 35s, with roughly ¾s of them using the platform weekly. However, for 20-24s, Instagram and TikTok are more popular and fewer than a third of 16-19s use Facebook weekly. In other words, Facebook going ‘mainstream’ did not just mean it became the most used overall, it meant most used by consumers who are of parent-age and older.

For this sizable group, Facebook is not dead. It is still where they like one another’s posts, share photos of their Elfs on the Shelf, and participate in local community groups. For younger users, however, the app mainly constitutes family photos from their older relatives, ad after promoted content after ad, and re-shared content from platforms like Reddit, X, and Instagram.

Instagram, on the other hand, is still prominently used by younger demographics. It competes neck-and-neck with TikTok for under-25s, surpassing it slightly for 25-34s, with both apps dipping back down for over-35s. So, the signs were already there that Instagram was going culturally ‘mainstream’ as its initial user base — millennials — began to age.

As if on cue, there has been a notable shift over the past several weeks: the feed (anecdotally, from a casual survey of latter-20s women) is starting to look a lot like Facebook’s. There is very little social content; people are posting less often, and if so it is mainly the grandma-safe life events and arty highlights from a roll of film shot six months ago. The app is a hub for memes and news, but many are reposted from other sites and platforms, and ads overpower everything else.

As with Facebook, the use is still high for scrolling – but meaningful interpersonal connection is fading for many original users, and the attention by cultural ‘trend setters’ has all but jumped off a cliff.

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Midia

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