FACEBOOK // Facebook, the Uncool Cousin

When did Facebook become less cool than the Mad Dogs get up you used to so proudly rock? Probably somewhere between your mom signing up and the familiar flood of “I said Yes!” relationship updates. Or was it the flurry of complaints followed by “#firstworldproblems” and the endless holiday snaps to make their desk-bound “friends” jealous?

Of course, your younger brother was the first to migrate to Instagram, posting his Go Pro snaps to the trendier network, sans the Share to Facebook option. And platforms like Whatsapp and Snapchat are far more sacred channels to share goss. There has been a marked increase of LinkedIn activity in the older generation – with the vision of the platform slowly being acknowledged and embraced by its user base. If Facebook could help you network with business colleagues without being subjected to cringey corporate events, it could be in for a revival. But after several years of Facebook being a pivotal player in “Proc Soc” as we used to call it in varsity (Procrastination Society), it would be hard to rebrand as much else.

Yet the speculation about the demise of Facebook (in particular user figures) is met with great surprise - typically by the late adopters and disappointed brand managers. But how can a platform possibly sustain the growth that Facebook has seen – surely market penetration is inevitable?

Of course, it’s not as cut and dried as “video killed the radio star”; but no doubt the relevance of Facebook has been brought under question. And their efforts to beat this have been well documented – what with the purchase of Whatsapp and the proliferation of cooler, hipper platforms.

To be honest, the most useful function these days is the aggregation of offbeat news articles and well, there are better apps for that. That’s not to say that Facebook faces any kind of imminent redundancy though – but even with its constant updates, it’s hard to inject newfound enthusiasm into the user base.

Certainly Facebook fatigue may have onset prematurely for myself, having worked with brands on the platform (not to mention its advertising interface). It might not be #socialsuicide just yet but it certainly be seems to be heading that way.