Hacker News Reader

Comment by jeletonskelly | Hacker News Reader

I think you already see that younger generations don't prefer (or simply don't at all) using those social apps. Instead they use several social apps for specific things: snapchat for pics/text, whatsapp for text, vine for video, tinder/grinder for dating, instagram for social and pics, and more that I'm probably just not aware of because I'm 30. I think you're less likely to see a replacement and more likely to see them become places for "old people."

View on HN

I'm 22 and I've opted out of Facebook.

Not because my parents are on it (they are), but because it's not fun.

It used to be fun in high school (4-5 years ago) when you could have semi-private conversations with friends through wall posts, back before every status and picture was gamified by "likes", back before everything you ever posted was pinned like a dead moth on your timeline for everyone to see in perpetuity, back before it turned into a bunch of roosters strutting around, sticking their chests out and seeing who can crow the loudest.

Many of my friends share the same sentiments and are dropping off the Facebook grid in favor of Snapchat/direct messaging (Groupme, Whatsapp)/real-life hanging out.

That said, I don't think Facebook is going anywhere anytime soon:

> Facebook pages/events are essential for businesses and organizations. It's a large inconvenience not to have one if you're a business owner or a college student, especially in countries outside the US with less developed internet infrastructure and resources.

> Huge room for growth internationally. In some nascent markets, people even think that Facebook is the internet. [1]

> Facebook owns Whatsapp, Instagram, and Oculus Rift. Very strong portfolio of companies with a lot of brilliant people behind them.

[1] http://qz.com/333313/milliions-of-facebook-users-have-no-ide...

SnapChat is a battery hog on my phone. I use WhatsApp with all my hometown friends as a way to group chat.

I guess most kids don't like to be on a social network that their parents also use. Quite an interesting problem for facebook to solve.

I use the book of faces specifically for keeping in touch with family from a distance. I think it will be the same for kids when they grow up. They move away and they will join facebook.

Facebook is still used heavily by younger people, especially in their 20's and late teens. I see Twitter falling a lot harder in popularity than Facebook. At the end of the day, "everyone" has a facebook. Most of my friends don't have a twitter and only use it when linked to it from Reddit or some other site.

Twitter does seem to be gaining in the international recognition, probably still residual effect stemming from the media attention gained by the Arab Spring and other social news events that unfolded on Twitter.

Twitter is for me unique that it is used a lot by opensource developers and more broadly IT envagelists/figures. It's a goto resource for news related to frameworks, dev conferences,... LinkedIn aspires also in this area, but it's not relevant yet.

I find it highly ironic and counterproductive that so many "open source" developers and users live on a proprietary platform like Twitter. Free alternatives exist, but they need the critical mass that a community like that could bring.

That's a very good point. Keeping the youths from poluting the platform with their inanity, and then engage them increasingly more, once they have matured enough to be part of newsfeeds may be what FB are shooting for?

I can anecdotally confirm this and even place an age limit. My daughter (25) is an avid FB user while my son (17) is not. He has an account, just never uses FB except for the federated login. Seen this pattern among their friends too.

EDIT: Can anyone explain what is causing downvoting? Are anecdotes not valuable information?

Totally agree with your point. I'm 33 and aware the young generation is using a different toolbet.

We moved both my extended families to u .

That has been working extremely well. The only thing that I miss os the opportunity to go back to arbitrary points in time like I could on the old blog.

I find "social" in social network is a form of social that I am mostly not comfortable with.

Whatsapp and Instagram were acquired by Facebook and Vine was acquired by Twitter. Tinder/Grindr are fads that are already fading. Snapchat, it's probably a matter of time before they get acquired or people get bored with it.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com