Why does Gen Z hate Facebook? Social network turns 20 with shrinking teen use

SIMONE DEL ROSARIO:

Remember when Facebook was the hot ticket in town? Feel old yet?

Blow out those candles, Facebook, 20 years old on February 4.

Back when Facebook first started, college students clamored for access and you needed an edu address to sign up.

Now most teens wouldn’t be caught dead.

sharday618:
“My daughter just told me that Facebook is literally Snapchat for old people. It is.”

SIMONE DEL ROSARIO:

If you’re old enough to go on Facebook memories and cringe at what you used to write in that status bar…

christalluster:
“Christal is living in the moment and planning her future. Girl, what?”

SIMONE DEL ROSARIO:

…you’re not alone.

dustinnickersoncomedy:
“There’s a lot of people I don’t like on the internet, but the person I hate the most is me on Facebook 10 years ago.”

SIMONE DEL ROSARIO:

Pushing past the cringe, while Facebook mostly has this reputation these days:

yourbiwitchyaunt:
“Facebook is so uncool. (Gag, Gag, Gag)”

SIMONE DEL ROSARIO:

It’s still a trillion dollar company with more than 3 billion monthly active users. Surprising, right?

chevvycaprice:
“It’s full of nothing but your hometown people. But them nothing but the biggest haters of all.”

SIMONE DEL ROSARIO:

Travel back with me for a minute to the dorm rooms in 2004. MySpace and Friendster are just getting the social media movement off the ground. Don’t get me started on the fact that we publicly ranked our friends. “Me at the Zoo,” the first ever YouTube video, wouldn’t be uploaded for another year.

Rumored robot Mark Zuckerberg launched “The Facebook” as an online directory of Harvard students.

Soon they allowed students at other Ivy league schools to join, made a crucial change to the name…

“Drop the ‘The.’ Just Facebook.”

SIMONE DEL ROSARIO:

And eventually expanded to all universities in the U.S. and Canada.

Two and a half years after launch, Facebook broke down the wall to anyone 13 and older with an email address.

At the time, Facebook was bringing in about $30 million in revenue a year. And “experts” warned expanding reach the wrong way could give it the reputation of being a “second-rate version of MySpace.”

Facebook would go on to buy Instagram and WhatsApp, launch an IPO, deal with some lawsuits,

“If you guys were the inventors of Facebook, you’d have invented Facebook.”

SIMONE DEL ROSARIO:

And go through another company name change, now Meta, to align with a shift toward the metaverse.

Through it all, Facebook remains the most popular social media platform in the world.

spiderwomanh:
“Facebook… is… For… Boomers.”

SIMONE DEL ROSARIO:

Right… So how did a social network invented for college students get its Boomer reputation?

It’s certainly not because of actual demographics, where the biggest group is men age 25-34. Which, for the record, falls into the millennial category.

True boomers make up maybe a tenth of Facebook’s user base, but they tend to make themselves known.

camquestions:
“There’s 1 reason and 1 reason only I’m still on Facebook. And it’s for the Boomers and the Gammons. They create their own comedy, they’re hilarious.”

blaire_allison:
“And then my dad, every night, tells everyone on Facebook goodnight. Goodnight Facebook friends, going to bed. (laughs)”

space.mermaid.cos:
“For all its faults, there’s nothing like thousands of people coming together to dunk on boomers on Facebook.”

SIMONE DEL ROSARIO:

So maybe you’re here for the entertainment. But 20 years in, Facebook’s struggling with its street cred.

Let’s look at teens age 13 to 17. Ten years ago, 71% of them said they use Facebook. Today, this Pew Research poll shows just 33% use the site.

The reality is, teens are are flocking to short-form video apps, whether it’s YouTube at 93 percent, TikTok at 63 percent, Snap at 60, or Instagram at 59.

Good news for Meta, they own Instagram, the third-most-used social network on the planet. And a substantial chunk of those users are 18 to 34, even if it is mostly just videos from TikTok.

Gareth gets it.

It was probably initially concerning for Facebook to see teenage use drop off a cliff. But with all the heat it gets for harmful content for teens,

“There’s families of victims here today. Have you apologized to the victims? Would you like to do so now?”

SIMONE DEL ROSARIO:

Facebook is now purposefully focusing on young adults instead.

And I’ve got news for you, Gen Z. Your generation is expected to soon outnumber Boomers on Facebook, if you haven’t already.