Teens abandon X and Facebook as TikTok and WhatsApp gain momentum, report (www.techspot.com)
from schizoidman@lemm.ee to technology@lemmy.world on 16 Dec 02:39
https://lemm.ee/post/49891367

#technology

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pmc@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 16 Dec 02:54 next collapse

I think teens abandoned Facebook like 10 years ago

protist@mander.xyz on 16 Dec 03:39 next collapse

Surely longer ago than that? Facebook hasn’t been cool for probably over 15 years

Vanth@reddthat.com on 16 Dec 03:42 next collapse

Has FB been cool since they got rid of signups limited by .edu email addresses?

protist@mander.xyz on 16 Dec 03:51 next collapse

That was basically the end. When it was only friends and the feed sorted by “new,”, it was super fun. When my aunts started joining it became much less fun.

SlopppyEngineer@lemmy.world on 16 Dec 07:31 collapse

the feed sorted by “new,”

Yeah, and it went from “let’s just add some stuff” to outright “we will force feed you this slop and you will like it” from there. It felt like you were a goose being prepped for Christmas’ foie gras.

can@sh.itjust.works on 16 Dec 03:53 next collapse

That’s when it was cool to teens who didn’t have .edu emails addresses (but not long after).

Cornelius_Wangenheim@lemmy.world on 16 Dec 11:19 next collapse

No, because that’s when the olds took it over.

stoly@lemmy.world on 18 Dec 02:03 collapse

You had a good year or two after that and then it went to shit.

aarRJaay@lemm.ee on 16 Dec 08:10 collapse

It went downhill when poking and sheep throwing went away.

realitista@lemm.ee on 16 Dec 09:20 collapse

Poking is still there. I’m trying to bring it back.

BowtiesAreCool@lemmy.world on 16 Dec 10:10 collapse

I never stopped

[deleted] on 16 Dec 06:21 next collapse

.

kautau@lemmy.world on 16 Dec 07:47 collapse

“In the beginning:”

Facebook was a MySpace alternative for “academics” (college students / alums) instead of teens.

LinkedIn was a MySpace alternative for “professionals” instead of teens.

Forums were an evolution of BBSs that predated “social” media because it wasn’t you, it was an avatar, a fake persona you created rather than “first name,” “last name.”

ICQ and Skype were purely chat platforms, competing in a completely different space.

I have no idea what point this rant is trying to make but all the comparisons between services are way off base.

rottingleaf@lemmy.world on 16 Dec 12:18 collapse

but all the comparisons between services are way off base.

My experience in Russia. No, they are not off base. Just naturally there are different PoVs and for you it may be something entirely else. You can think about that before saying something is wrong.

MySpace

Say, I’m not sure many people even knew of that where I am.

Forums were an evolution of BBSs that predated “social” media because it wasn’t you, it was an avatar, a fake persona you created rather than “first name,” “last name.”

People using real names in the Web were the weird ones, but it was normal to meet IRL those you know via forums.

I have no idea what point this rant is trying to make

Your failure, not mine.

stoly@lemmy.world on 18 Dec 02:03 collapse

Teens stopped using Facebook in 2015.

confusedwiseman@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 16 Dec 02:58 next collapse

Ok, I feel old. The only reason facebook has any relevance to me is the market place. What’s the best alternative?

Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee on 16 Dec 03:05 next collapse

That’s just it, Facebook is kinda the default option, and almost everyone has an account there. It’s why so many clubs arrange everything through a Facebook page.

pewgar_seemsimandroid@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 16 Dec 18:52 collapse

Craigslist, cash converters

confusedwiseman@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 17 Dec 00:49 collapse

It might be that I’m looking at this from a US perspective. Craig’s list has been a bit rough when I’ve tried it. Scammy and shadier people. I hope you’ve had better experiences here than me.

I found cash converters out of the UK. Is that correct? It seemed comparable to a pawn shop at first glance.

pewgar_seemsimandroid@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 17 Dec 22:49 collapse

I’ve heard it from dankpods a Australian channel

DemBoSain@midwest.social on 16 Dec 03:01 next collapse

Where there any teens on Twitter? Last I was there it was full of angry middle-age men.

urheber@discuss.tchncs.de on 16 Dec 05:41 next collapse

before musk came it was pretty full, most of them have moved to threads

misk@sopuli.xyz on 16 Dec 07:43 next collapse

Ah, the curse of algorithmic social network. It’s full of angry middle-aged men if you follow those / interact with them. There are / were big communities formed around various pop stars on Twitter and those are quite different demographics.

Today@lemmy.world on 17 Dec 22:53 collapse

The Internet- where men are men…

UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml on 18 Dec 00:20 collapse

Men? Wait, yall aren’t dogs using the internet while the humans are away at work?

Yall are dogs to right?

chr@lemmy.ca on 16 Dec 03:21 next collapse

A decade ago is when teens stopped using Facebook, unless they’re counting Instagram in those metrics?

urheber@discuss.tchncs.de on 16 Dec 05:42 next collapse

then they would have to count WhatsApp too…

AA5B@lemmy.world on 16 Dec 20:23 collapse

Look at the graph in the article: it’s the only newsworthy piece. Assuming the numbers are legit, the lines crossed about 6 years ago.

Of course the x axis not having any labeled points there doesn’t fill me with confidence. Perhaps it’s just two points for each and they drew a straight line

Maeve@kbin.earth on 16 Dec 03:34 next collapse

Because Whatsapp is totally not owned by FB.

lemmylommy@lemmy.world on 16 Dec 03:45 collapse

It’s not about why owns it. It’s about where young people can be without getting bothered by their parents and other old people.

Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world on 16 Dec 04:13 next collapse

I’m 41…you telling me the kids today don’t think of me as the greatest person who ever existed??? Pssshhh that’s malarkey! I won’t hear of it! EVERYONE thinks I’m the greatest person who ever existed! My lexicon includes words like “malarkey” and “lexicon”! Kids think that’s cool right???

southsamurai@sh.itjust.works on 16 Dec 04:54 next collapse

Yo, your lexicon is making my malarkey happy

NutsGate@feddit.nl on 16 Dec 07:22 next collapse

I’m 39 so I am slightly more rizz than you. I maintain my levels of brat by regularly updating my skibidi vocab.

AA5B@lemmy.world on 16 Dec 20:20 collapse

Clearly you young people are fine being on Lemmy with old people

rottingleaf@lemmy.world on 16 Dec 05:36 collapse

That’s about phone number requirement for signup. Not about platforms.

OK. Life is life.

I’ve just had a traumatic memory of one young person, a girl (with possibly undiagnosed ASPD), from 13 years ago.

Feel nausea and want to throw up every time thinking about that kind of places, dynamics, emotions.

Vanth@reddthat.com on 16 Dec 03:41 next collapse

That is a weird way of describing it. Teens aren’t “abandoning” FB & X; they never signed up to begin with. And why would that? They are platforms built for and filled with millennials+.

kratoz29@lemm.ee on 16 Dec 03:50 next collapse

Okay? But what does Whatsapp has anything to do with the other? DM?

I don’t consider WhatsApp social media.

egrets@lemmy.world on 16 Dec 08:27 collapse

WhatsApp has channels (public feeds centered around topics, a bit like microblogging), communities (groups about a subject, much like Facebook Groups), and updates (temporal video/photo statuses to share with your friends). You might only use it for DM, but it has much bigger aspirations.

michael_palmer@lemmy.sdf.org on 16 Dec 05:30 next collapse

It’s pretty clear. Facebook is now full of crap created by artificial intelligence (and not only).

<img alt="" src="https://lemmy.sdf.org/pictrs/image/ecf683c1-44c4-457c-bdcc-360154e4d0fa.png">

VintageGenious@sh.itjust.works on 16 Dec 19:49 next collapse

Tiktok is as well.

sudoer777@lemmy.ml on 18 Dec 04:45 collapse

463k people actually liked that photo?

michael_palmer@lemmy.sdf.org on 18 Dec 18:57 collapse

It’s a video

sudoer777@lemmy.ml on 18 Dec 23:50 collapse

That’s even worse

skymtf@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 16 Dec 05:34 next collapse

well Facebook still owns them and will own them when they all switch to instagram reels like America wants them to do

obinice@lemmy.world on 16 Dec 05:50 next collapse

WhatsApp? The instant messenger boomers use on their phones?

Damn, who saw that coming.

vrighter@discuss.tchncs.de on 16 Dec 06:33 next collapse

american, right? It’s very popular in other places.

cestvrai@lemm.ee on 16 Dec 06:50 next collapse

Most countries stopped using SMS ages ago. WhatsApp, Signal and Telegram are ubiquitous.

AndyMFK@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 16 Dec 08:21 collapse

I WISH signal was ubiquitous. Half of my friends are still using Facebook Messenger so I still have to resort to using SMS for them

DrDystopia@lemy.lol on 16 Dec 09:57 next collapse

SMS for everybody not on a self-hostable encrypted messenger. Why fool oneself into thinking a US managed messenger is private?

cestvrai@lemm.ee on 16 Dec 19:38 collapse

Belgian?

VintageGenious@sh.itjust.works on 16 Dec 19:51 collapse

Is Belgium known for using Messenger?

cestvrai@lemm.ee on 16 Dec 19:53 collapse

I thought so, but that might be 10 years ago and in Flanders, so… 🤷‍♂️

[deleted] on 16 Dec 06:54 next collapse

.

aarRJaay@lemm.ee on 16 Dec 08:09 next collapse

Spotted the iMessage user who routinly cries about dot colour

EngineerGaming@feddit.nl on 16 Dec 10:42 collapse

Weird that this is your association as using it would require an iPhone which most youth don’t have. My thought was Telegram, which is omnipresent at least around me, with Whatsapp often being kept just for the parents or older relatives.

vrighter@discuss.tchncs.de on 16 Dec 12:14 next collapse

telegram is one of the worst, privacy wise.

EngineerGaming@feddit.nl on 16 Dec 12:47 collapse

I know, and it’s terrible that it’s so unavoidable. I managed to avoid Whatsapp, but without Telegram managing university life would be incredibly hard.

1985MustangCobra@lemmy.ca on 16 Dec 20:09 collapse

“an iPhone which most youth dont have”

i see you dont live in north america

1985MustangCobra@lemmy.ca on 16 Dec 20:13 collapse

telegram is for pedos and this one guy i know uses it and i question his motives

EngineerGaming@feddit.nl on 16 Dec 20:40 collapse

No, it’s used by just about everyone. Generally the younger the person and the bigger their city, the more likely they are to gravitate towards Telegram rather than Whatsapp.

1985MustangCobra@lemmy.ca on 16 Dec 20:57 collapse

I know alot of people in my city and its one of the biggest in north america and they have never heard of it.

Free_Opinions@feddit.uk on 16 Dec 12:20 next collapse

In most of Europe WhatsApp is synonymous with text messaging.

mayhair@discuss.tchncs.de on 16 Dec 13:02 collapse

Also in South Asia and the Middle East.

Zorsith@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 16 Dec 18:08 collapse

Yeah, the other instant messenger owned by Facebook

dragonfucker@lemmy.nz on 16 Dec 05:53 next collapse

Isn’t whatsapp for old people? Drag uses Discord instead. It’s not great, but at least it doesn’t hack your phone.

VintageGenious@sh.itjust.works on 16 Dec 19:54 collapse

As much as I dislike Whatsapp and love Discord. Private messages in Whatsapp are encrypted while Discord messages are entirely collected

uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 16 Dec 10:09 next collapse

Sadly Elon Musk remains a threat to us all.

john89@lemmy.ca on 16 Dec 10:23 next collapse

Weird, considering facebook does all the shit those other sites do.

themeatbridge@lemmy.world on 16 Dec 12:29 collapse

People go where their friends are. Their grandparents are on Facebook.

GhiLA@sh.itjust.works on 16 Dec 20:02 next collapse

My family has a signal group. I started it two years ago.

Almost no one pays any attention to it, unless they accidentally open the app once a month, but they’re all still there and can be spoken to.

I put a PSA out a month ago that I’ll no longer respond on Facebook Messenger or SMS after the turn of the year. Tough shit. There was some groaning but, if there’s no other way, either use Signal or invest in a Pigeon coop and get training.

prof_wafflez@lemmy.world on 16 Dec 20:33 collapse

There was some groaning but, if there’s no other way, either use Signal or invest in a Pigeon coop and get training.

Any particular reason you are abandoning SMS? Any particular reason for the strict rule?

GhiLA@sh.itjust.works on 16 Dec 20:36 collapse

RCS ain’t universal. I only have it with some iPhone users and the rare Pixel.

If it’s what’s for dinner, I don’t care. Musk can know I had some hamburger steak.

If it’s the code to your tablet, mom, ask on Signal.

sudoer777@lemmy.ml on 18 Dec 04:39 collapse

RCS is shit, with SMS at least my phone comes with a messenger and I can download one from F-Droid. With RCS only one proprietary app supports it and it functions weirdly on GrapheneOS. In its current state it’s practically a downgrade at this point and considering how bad SMS is that says a lot.

AA5B@lemmy.world on 16 Dec 20:18 next collapse

This is news? The article’s own graph puts this about 6 years ago

SteveDinn@lemmy.ca on 17 Dec 00:14 next collapse

I guess I’ll never know what the kids are saying ever again because there’s no way I’m installing either of those apps.

UltraMagnus0001@lemmy.world on 17 Dec 02:20 next collapse

Isn’t whatsapp another data mining app for Facebook?

overload@sopuli.xyz on 17 Dec 08:07 next collapse

Yes

TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world on 17 Dec 13:25 collapse

Yes, although to nowhere near the same extent as Facebook and Instagram.

The chats are E2EE using Signal’s encryption protocol, so very good.

But they will certainly mine everything else they can get. They may not know what you’re saying, but they do know who you’re talking to, when you’re doing it, your contacts, your profile pic, how often you send images, etc. any web links with tracking info embedded in the URL will likely be tracked too, once you open them.

cyberpunk007@lemmy.ca on 17 Dec 16:10 next collapse

This still baffles me. What’s Facebook’s end game here? They are built on data collection and spying, but they own an app that is E2EE.

TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world on 17 Dec 22:32 next collapse

Honestly, I think they just saw that Whatsapp was becoming the standard chat app for basically all of the world outside of the US and China, and just didn’t want anybody else to have it.

Additionally, metadata is better than no data, I guess.

sunzu2@thebrainbin.org on 18 Dec 04:59 collapse

Meta data is prolly more valuable at scale...

Most of are really generic so any single normie data package has but so much value. Middling income with middle hobbies etc

However, having data on 330 million pedons along with each ones connections, thats power.

underwire212@lemm.ee on 17 Dec 23:51 next collapse

The metadata. The message content is E2E, but the data about the content isn’t necessarily e2e.

cyberpunk007@lemmy.ca on 18 Dec 04:34 collapse

Good point. Figuring out who is talking to who is valuable info for them too.

sunzu2@thebrainbin.org on 18 Dec 05:00 collapse

Meta data is more valuable than whatever is being discussed most of the time

Loce@lemmy.world on 18 Dec 01:23 collapse

If you go only by the metadata, they know all your friends, their phone numbers, your location history, when do you chat, with whom, how often and how long. And I’m fairly sure they index conversation in some form.

Just location history can paint a decent picture of what you do, where do you go, what do you like, which friends are nearby, etc… and all of that was implemented like 15+ years ago, imagine what they can do today with AI. It’s fair to say FB knows more about you then you do (FB, IG, Wapp…). And to be blunt, it could probably determine what ppls shit smells like, judging by all the pictures of a meal they post on IG.

dsilverz@thelemmy.club on 17 Dec 23:20 collapse

E2EE doesn’t mean that the developer/company can’t be a member of the “ends” in “End-to-end encryption”. WhatsApp is closed-source, so nobody can really confirm which E2EE algorithm is at play. However, considering that the E2EE is the implementation of a known E2EE algorithm, such algorithms often support more than two keys (hence, more than two people), so, a third-key from Charlie can be part of the conversation, unbeknownst to Alice and Bob. If Meta would inject their own key inside every WhatsApp conversation, they could effectively read things.

For example: GPG/PGP support multiple public keys, so the same encrypted message can be decrypted by any private keys belonging to those public keys. Alice can send a message to both Bob, Charlie and Douglas, collectively specifying their public keys at the moment of the encryption. Then, the exact same payload would be sent to them, and they would use their own private keys to decrypt the message.

So, let’s suppose that a closed-source messaging app company/developer had their own pair of public and private keys, and they public key is injected in every conversation made through their app. They’d also obfuscate it from the UI so the UI won’t show the hardcoded “third-party”. This way they could easily read every single message being exchanged through their app. It’s like TSA with a “master key” that can open everyone’s travelling bags, no matter where you bought the travelling bag.

Even Signal may have this. Yeah, libsignal is “open-source”, but the app isn’t. What if their app had some hardcoded public key from Signal team? The only trustworthy E2EE is encoding it yourself using OpenPGP and similar. And if one is more privacy-worried than me, there are projects such as the “Tinfoil Chat” which is almost-immune to eavesdropping, involving optocoupled (hence, airgapped) circuitry, separate machines for networking, decryption and encryption, Onion-routing, and so on.

In summary: nobody should trust out-of-the-box E2EE, especially those hidden within a closed-source app.

cupcakezealot@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 17 Dec 23:24 next collapse

it’s why politicians want to ban it

Fades@lemmy.world on 18 Dec 02:56 collapse

They’ve been trying to ban it for awhile now, so no. They want to ban it because they can’t directly control the companies that own those platforms overseas whereas Facebook, IG, etc. are very much able to be controlled if necessary by those in power

sunzu2@thebrainbin.org on 18 Dec 04:56 next collapse

Proper analysis.

People really underestimate the state corpo connections when looking at their own regime and domestic corpos. Since these are "our" guys

JasonDJ@lemmy.zip on 18 Dec 13:01 collapse

It’s a delicate topic. TikTok collects a ton of data from devices and infers a ton of data from watching patterns. This is really true of most of the modern web apps, but especially true of TikTok because the short-form means more content to churn through, and the algorithm is practically an IV drip of dopamine.

The much, much more important issues are user privacy and truth-in-media, and is something that just as well needs to be pointed at Meta and Twitter and Reddit and Google. TikTok is probably more critical at the present moment, because it’s run by a country our president-elect wants to start a trade-war with, and they’ve got quite an upper hand with all the data that we, the users, give them for free, via a propaganda machine under their control.

arararagi@ani.social on 17 Dec 23:42 next collapse

No teens on blue sky, nice

ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world on 19 Dec 10:28 collapse

I had to block a few ones on Bluesky.

Clinicallydepressedpoochie@lemmy.world on 18 Dec 00:54 next collapse

Gyna

sudoer777@lemmy.ml on 18 Dec 01:54 next collapse

Teens are on Facebook?

stinky@redlemmy.com on 18 Dec 03:00 collapse

How else you gonna cyber bully the transfer student

scarabic@lemmy.world on 18 Dec 03:32 collapse

Gee I wish they had just left Facebook as a way to share photos and updates with friends and family, instead of turning it into a viral content clusterfuck to capture the youth audience. It didn’t even work.

sunzu2@thebrainbin.org on 18 Dec 04:55 collapse

Marketplace function is their future IMHO

Asidonhopo@lemmy.world on 18 Dec 11:31 collapse

Craigslist eventually got rid of personals, give it a decade