However, things changed with time, and Facebook became popular among other age groups.
And now, in 2024, I rarely find young people talking about Facebook.
Instead, I often find my parents and people older than me talking about it.
This clearly shows that the young audience has totallylost interest in Facebook.
What’s more surprising is that Facebook is still gaining its audience overall.
In fact, they currently have more than three billion active users.
Pew Research Center
This lack of a young audience on Facebook makes me feel like an outsider on the platform.
When Facebook launched, it was one of a kind.
None of the apps available at that time offered the same services.
Oberlo
One of Facebooks main competitors is Instagram.
Research shows that two out of every three people with an Instagram account arebetween 18 and 34 years old.
If Instagram wasnt enough, Facebook is also facing tough competition fromTikTok.
Image Credit –Meta
Its popularity is also very similar to Instagrams among young people.
For example, the current Facebook Home feed contains everything.
This makes the Home feed very cluttered.
I want Facebook to keep the Home feed only for showing posts from accounts you follow.
It could create an entirely new tab for showing content posted by our friends on Facebook.
Also, I dont needMeta AIsuggestions in every video I watch.
Its like Facebook is forcefully suggesting that they have an AI product, and I should try it.
The old, simple Facebook interface was great when everything was very simple.
There were only a few tabs, including notifications, messaging, and friends.
Now Facebook has introduced multiple other options, likeMarketplace, Videos, Ad Center, Gaming, and Reels.
In addition to all that, Facebook is promoting videos like crazy.
Maybe they want to increase the time we spend on the platform.
While this is generally fine, sometimes it leads to the promotion of irrelevant videos.
This isn’t just happening to me.
My mother used to use Facebook to watch cooking videos, but now Facebook suggests her political videos.
It seems like Facebook is trying to expose users to different types of content to see what they like.
However, this isn’t what I want from Facebook.
If I want to explore new content, I will search for it myself.
c’mon stop suggesting irrelevant videos to me.
For instance, some various stickers and filters are exclusive to the platform.
Also, if not exclusive, Instagram is often the first platform to introduce a feature.
For example, the Reels feature was first introduced on Instagram and was later brought to Facebook.
Ever since Instagram’s launch, Facebook has always been Meta’s second priority.
However, you will often hear this news about Instagram.
Merge Facebook and Messenger
Its not that I dont contact my friends on Facebook anymore.
But after Messenger was introduced, I uninstalled the Facebook app and started using theMessenger appfor messaging my friends.
My recommendation to Meta would be to merge the Facebook and Messenger apps.
These were some of the things Facebook could do to win back a young audience like me.
However, the abovementioned points are the areas I think would help Facebook regain its young audience.
Most probably, as a young audience, you might be looking for something else from Facebook.
