Reports of Facebook's death are greatly exaggerated, says Rhiannon Williams. We just prefer to stalk over sharing.
A global map of interactions between Facebook users created in 2010
Every
few months, a report is published suggesting Facebook is in decline. A notable
study from researchers at Princeton University published earlier this year
declared the social network would lose 80 per cent of its users and die out
“like the bubonic plague”. Another from You Gov branded Facebook and rival Twitter's
popularity in decline in June, stating a lack of interest, concerns over
privacy and advertising fatigue among the key reasons.
Yet
for all this doom-mongering, are any fewer of us using Zuckerberg's decade-old
platform? Global Web Index has published a comprehensive report on social media
use across 32 global markets, encompassing some 170,000 internet users in the
largest on-going study into the life of the digital consumer.
Facebook
was the only network to see a drop in active usage among its 16-24 year-old
users, of 0.5 per cent. Since the start of 2013, sharing photos and messaging
friends has fallen by around 20 per cent, according to the report. While more
than four fifths (83 per cent) of online adults have Facebook accounts, only 47
per cent consider themselves active users, a decrease of around 100 million
users between the beginning and end of 2014.
As
it stands, this doesn't look great for Facebook. While it may have more global
members (some 867 million), YouTube receives more traffic, with 85 per cent of
online adults outside of China regularly visiting the site. YouTube's
membership numbers may be lower at 656 million, but it beats Facebook's 76 per
cent rate of regular visitation by a comfortable margin.
What
this suggests is that users are flocking to YouTube with a specific purpose in
mind (to watch funny, educational or just plain weird videos), while Facebook
is having difficulty encouraging the users it does have to actively use the
platform.
This
is partly attributable to the fact Facebook has the oldest user base of all the
social platforms, with a quarter of its active users aged over 45. By contrast,
more than 70 per cent of Tumbler and Instagram users are aged between 16 to 34 . Generally, older Facebook members
are less likely to be posting, sharing and interacting on the platform as
younger members, so it's hardly surprising engagement rates are slightly lower.
This
doesn't mean that Facebook is dying a death - far from it. In the face of user
fatigue (a decade is a long time in the world of social media), more people
than ever before continue to visit, to the tune of an increase of around 90
million each month.
The
ways in which we're using Facebook have evolved; we're still using it, but
we're more passive observers (read: stalkers) than active sharers these days.
And as any regular Facebook visitor will tell you, there's nothing more
irritating than that handful of friends who insist on documenting every trip to
the gym, passive aggressive grievance or smug moment with a status, or worse,
accompanying photo.
What
this also means is that social behaviors online are increasingly diversifying;
we're using multiple platforms for different reasons. Juggling multiple
accounts across different apps and sites means that Facebook isn't the key
critical mass it once was.
Instagram,
the report points out, is increasingly becoming the go-to app for editing and
sharing photos, which could explain a decline in pictures posted on Facebook.
We also now hold conversations on dedicated chat apps and off the larger social
networks, on Whats App , Snap chat and Skype. While the standalone Facebook
Messenger app still has more users than Whats App, its function will extend
beyond simple messaging and into a money transfer service. A Stanford
University student uncovered a strand of code detailing the PIN-secured
peer-to-peer transfer model currently used by China's We Chat.
Facebook
is aiming to become a service provider, allowing its members to buy goods and
exchange money alongside keeping up with their old childhood enemies. Instagram
and Whats App may be in the up, but let's not forget who owns both companies -
Facebook. It's diversifying the purposes of each of its platforms, extending
its global reach and presence in each of our lives ever more deeply. Just don't
expect it to die any time soon.