The observation is clear: Facebook is less and less attractive to young people. The latest study, published in August, also confirms this. According to the Pew Research Center, only 32% of Americans aged 13 to 17 use the web. social. For comparison, in 2015, 71% of users connected to the platform!
What if Facebook was cool again?
So comment explain this phenomenon? The platform has suffered from numerous scandals around protection personal data, including data from Cambridge Analytica. The service has also been cited for widespread misinformation there, which menace democratic debate and polarizes political life. But another factor explains more confidently the disengagement of young people: Facebook is increasingly seen as a network. social reserved for older users. So young internet users tend to flee to other apps like TikTok or Snapchat, but Mark Zuckerberg’s firm is clearly not conceding defeat. And he also has important assets to get out of it. Forbes-cited researcher Dustin York of the University of Maryville explains, in particular, that Meta can still count on the 62% of American teenagers who still use Instagram, even if its market share may also decline in the future. And Facebook, too, could change to attract younger internet users. As such, the professor proposes to make “major ethical structural changes and conduct a public relations tour on privacy issues.” He also adds that the network social “can be inserted place social features that teens appreciate, such as more fun-oriented algorithms and more socializing in small private groups. But even then, Facebook will need the magic of time to make the old cool again. »
