The Demise of Facebook?
I’ve been reading an interesting article by Chrys Bader this morning, discussing ‘the end of the Facebook era’. It’s very interesting and one that we’re all aware of, even subconsciously. Facebook has declining numbers, teens are not so active as they were, our Facebook networks are becoming saturated and for teens in particular they’re becoming increasingly sensitive about what they share, especially when they know their parents are lurking around.
This article goes on though after discussing the why’s and therefore’s, it discusses the public company’s financial status and the ability to ‘buy cool’, such as they did with Instagram.
It’s interesting and poignant to read and digest the social network shifts that are around right now and probably will continue to be for many years to come.
Joanne Carter
Joanne Carter is a British photographer, photography journalist, editor and curator and the founder and editorial director of TheAppWhisperer.com, an independent international photography publication established in 2009.Her journalism, criticism and commentary have appeared in The Times, The Sunday Times, The Guardian, Financial Times, BBC, Vogue Italia, LensCulture, Popular Photography, Android Magazine, NikonPro, DPReview, Which Digital Camera and Which Camera. She has lectured internationally on photography and mobile art, served as a juror for international photography awards, and exhibited her own photographic work across the UK, Europe, South Korea and the United States.Alongside her editorial work, Joanne's photographic and postgraduate research explores death, grief, memory, representation and social inequality through contemporary photography, participatory practice and visual research methods, with the longer-term aim of developing this work through doctoral research.Through TheAppWhisperer, she continues to publish independent photography journalism spanning contemporary photographic practice, mobile imaging, photographic apps, computational photography and emerging imaging technologies.Joanne is available for editorial commissions, photography projects, judging, curatorial work, speaking engagements, consultancy and selected collaborations.
3 Comments
Laurence Zankowski
Joanne,
There is more that seems to be kept out of the conversation. The fact that it is an American Company with ties to China and wanton, wholesale data mining by state run intelligence agencies. Do not for a moment think that these social netowrk businesses have your back on privacy. It is always about selling data to those who right now are grabbing it for free.
I end with a forever true statement: Youth are wise when adult eyes are lurking….
Be well
Laurence
ValeriGail
It’s not only youth leaving/not joining/being careful of Facebook. Others have learned first hand the hard lesson social media and sharing open to the public can bring. Eyes are opening. I think the fog we’ve been in is lifting and our brains are starting to kick back in. At least for some of us. It’s really not such a good idea to post all your info for the world to see. That doesn’t help connect us, it helps endanger us.
This was a good article and it’s nice to see the numbers are dropping. I for one can’t stand the changes in Facebook. I prefer Facebook of old before it was all commercials on my feed, and only my friends and family’s posts. It will never be that Facebook again. We are a society of consumers. Why would we want to NOT be marketed to? (Sarcasm)
Jay
This is not to advocate or disparage facebook either way, but let’s face it, it’s free and the system it has created has given many people ways to share and express themselves in a way that didn’t exist before. As far as private information– well, you have control over that– if you don’t want people to know your business than don’t publish anything. And certainly, for the vast majority of us out there, government ‘spies’ have no interest in us– this fear of ‘discovery’ (in my humble opinion) is inanane. And one more thing for discussions sake– all of us that have a job or service a sector of consumers– we are all selling something and you bet your dollars and euros if we could use social media or whatever to build out base of clients, we would certainly do so– so why beat up Facebook that needs to make money to operate and why beat them up because they want to make a profit. Even not-for-profits need to earn a dime, and some of those organizations are relentless to bring in the cash. Nothing’s perfect, but those that don’t like social media– walk away. It’s like those photographers that are so fearful one of their pics will be stolen from a posting and used for someone else’s gain. If you fear that than don’t post, period. I for one would love to ‘open up’ the New York Times app and see one of my photos front and center on page one. Just think of the social media storm I could cause, and recognition I would get, rather than just get a couple hundred bucks for a photo. Cheaters do seem to get caught– look at Shia LeBouf.
Ok, this is rambling a bit, but I think the media is doing us a disservice creating this sense of fear that all our records are being scrutinized by ‘THEM’. Unless you are a criminal or don’t want to pay your fair share of taxes, believe me, you are as uninteresting as me to ‘THEM’.