Facebook is the awkward family dinner party you can’t really leave
And that’s just fine.
In October 2005, I was a fourteen-year-old freshman in high school. I remember it was a Tuesday and I was sitting in third period with my friends Lesley and Caitlin when they asked if I was on Facebook. I had never heard of it, but Caitlin insisted that I set one up. The rest, as they say, is history.
I remember over the next few months, Facebook spread like wildfire through our school. Everyone had one and people were writing on walls left and right. Our school eventually blocked Facebook.com on the network because everyone would spend their free periods stopping in the computer lab to check their Facebook page (we didn’t have WiFi back then).
Now, 10 years later, my brother and sister are walking the same halls, but things are very different. My alma mater doesn’t use textbooks, they use iBooks and iPads—no more freshman backpacks. This trend is becoming the norm and whereas my only distraction was playing calculator games on my TI-86, high schoolers these days have the entire App Store at their disposal. It’s not surprising then when Snapchat reports that they have 15 million users between the ages of 13 and 17. Something is happening.
Whether we realize it or not, technology is evolving very quickly and the landscape of every industry is shifting. I’ve always rolled my eyes at headlines claiming that “Facebook is dead,” but I don’t disagree that things are changing. And then I stumbled upon a fascinating article by a 19-year-old UT-Austin student named Andrew Watts called “A Teenager’s View of Social Media (Written by an actual teen)”:
The entire post is excellent and well worth the read, but there was a particular passage that really stuck out to me:
Facebook: In short, many have nailed this on the head. It’s dead to us. Facebook is something we all got in middle school because it was cool but now is seen as an awkward family dinner party we can’t really leave.
Okay, humorous spot-on analogy aside, there’s nothing groundbreaking there. He’s pretty much confirmed what most people have suspected about Facebook—it’s losing its cool factor. But if you read on, he casually drops a really interesting nugget of insight:
Facebook is often the jumping-off point for many people to try to find you online, simply because everyone around us has it. If I met you one time at some party, I’m not going to try to check Twitter or Instagram to find out who you are. Instead, many opt for the ease of Facebook and the powerful search functionality that gives you results of people who you have a chance of knowing.
What Andrew just described is something that doesn’t currently exist—an online driver’s license of sorts. The closest thing we have to a digital version of the Yellow Pages with social context. It may not be the “cool” social destination anymore, but it is absolutely still serving a purpose for adults and teens alike—and Andrew just confirmed it.
Andrew goes on to give a very clear breakdown of the current state of social and his summary makes a ton of sense. When I think about my own experiences with these platforms, he totally nails the relationships:
If I could break down a party for you in social media terms, here’s how it would pan out:
You post yourself getting ready for the party, going to the party, having fun at the party, leaving at the end of the party, and waking up the morning after the party on Snapchat.
On Facebook you post the cute, posed pictures you took with your friends at the party with a few candids (definitely no alcohol in these photos).
On Instagram you pick the cutest one of the bunch to post to your network.
I see confirmation of this behavior in my own family. My two siblings in high school? One hasn’t changed their profile picture in a year and the other hasn’t posted to their wall in at least six months. They “like” and comment when engaged, but they don’t proactively create or share (perhaps understanding that colleges and future employers will see). Meanwhile, my younger sister is active on Instagram and both are very active on Snapchat. I’ve probably “talked” to them more via Snaps in the 3 months than texts or phone calls.
It’s clear that Facebook and Instagram are for the carefully curated moments of your life—the version of your life you want your Mom, Grandfather, and future Boss to see. A museum, if you will.
Snapchat is different:
“Snapchat is where we can really be ourselves while being attached to our social identity. Without the constant social pressure of a follower count or Facebook friends, I am not constantly having these random people shoved in front of me. Instead, Snapchat is a somewhat intimate network of friends who I don’t care if they see me at a party having fun.”
In 2005, that was Facebook for me. No likes. No comments. No parents. Just sharing our lives without any fear of judgement or concept of permanence.
In 2015, it’s Snapchat that fills that role for today’s teens, and that’s just fine.
Facebook has done something that few companies will ever do—reach true critical mass. Over one billion people are on Facebook. That’s almost 1/6th of the world. It could not have done that if it tried to retain it’s cool factor. Facebook’s mission is bigger than that. So it’s okay that there are new kids on the block; it’s not a zero sum game (especially when you remember that Facebook owns one of the coolest platforms in Instagram).
In fact, Facebook is inventing its own category. In contrast to MySpace, which was truly killed by Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram are simply joining the party and roles are evolving. Facebook used to throw the party and now he’s just the Dad there chaperoning his cool kids hanging with the newest batch of tech-teens.
With a new generation of Internet users, there was bound to be a culture and technology shift. In a fully digital world where privacy, permanence, and security are very real concerns, young people are seeking out places where they can be their genuine self without worrying it will come back to haunt them.
The way I see it, there are some big takeaways from these anecdotal insights from an actual teenager:
- Facebook ads are great and effective and wonderful, but let’s not kid ourselves into believing they’re reaching the 14–22 year old demographic in any meaningful way.
- Snapchat and Instagram will have to step very delicately through the process of introducing sponsored posts to avoid upsetting the delicate nirvana they’ve created on their respective platforms. My hunch is that young people will be fine with sponsored content so long as it doesn’t disrupt the experience they’ve fallen in love with (Instagram’s curated content and Snapchat’s authenticity and ephemeral nature).
- Facebook isn’t dead. People want to chase the next “hot” social media platform, but the funny thing is that fickle teens and twenty-somethings aren’t big spenders anyways. The “real” adults that are on Facebook sharing pictures of weddings, babies, and cats are the more lucrative target that advertisers want anyways.
Before you know it these teenagers will be the savvy young professionals that companies are desperate to reach. They’ll get married and become young parents and pretty soon these teenagers will be the covet next generation of Moms and Dads. And the way they will have grown up interacting with technology will be totally different. If you wait until that moment to learn about their behavior, you’ll be behind the curve and miss a lot of opportunities playing catch up.
More importantly, let’s stop saying that something has to be new or cool to have value. Proctor and Gamble is 178 years old and they did $85 billion in revenue last year. Facebook may be old and boring, but it’s not dead. It’s evolving.
Will Facebook become the Proctor and Gamble of Social Media? Maybe. I can’t think of a better positioned company do to so. Facebook isn’t just a website anymore, it’s a portfolio company. They currently own Whatsapp, Instagram, and came dangerously close to owning Snapchat. As long as Facebook continues to evolve with the market, they will grow older and even less cool. But they’ll be around for a long time.
And that’s just fine.
I love talking on Twitter @Joe_Scannell and would love to hear your thoughts about this piece. Did I get it right or am I totally off base?
