We have stopped sharing the days of our lives and Facebook is worried.
Once upon a social media time we thought we lived in a fairy tale of relevance. Our ego, charging in like a false protagonist, told us to suspend our disbelief and believe instead that the trivial aspects of our lives deserved an audience. After more than a decade of Facebook most of us have caught up to the chapter of knowledge that the minutiae activities of our lives do not deserve an audience and neither does our ego. Of course some of us have always known this and sadly some may never know this.
According to The Information people using Facebook are posting fewer things about their personal lives for their friends to see. Facebook is responding to the “double digit” decline in, what Facebook call “original sharing” by bringing a team together in London to develop strategies to address this and the effects the decline is having on their money spinner – the News Feed. (Source: The Information)
Meanwhile those who believe the minutiae of their life has an audience, unfortunately for you it does. It is however an audience of one. Your ego; the False Steward, the ugly sister, that bridge dwelling troll, is your only audience. Paying attention to your audience of one will not give you a happy ever after ending and that’s what concerns Facebook.
Content collapse
Next steps for Facebook? Currently Facebook is talking about the weather! For UK users at least Facebook now greets them with their local weather forecast. Giant leaps – we’ve gone from trivia to small talk. In an attempt to combat the content collapse Facebook has introducing a live video tool that everyone on Facebook can use. Five million uses watched the first video where CEO Mark Zuckerburg encouraged uses to post live video of whatever they wanted to, noting that “even mundane activities like getting a haircut can be entertaining when they’re in the moment.” No they’re not. They’re irrelevant.
There is no need to announce to anyone that you are getting a haircut, eating lunch, cooking your goose. The fairy tale has ended! The content collapse has occurred because we’ve grown up. It’s time to close the chapter that gave us Facebook riding the foolish Golden Ass through the absurd lives of users. It’s time to close the book because the false hero ego is dying and we don’t live in a Little Mermaid world.
Image credit (Donkey): John Campbell
Jamtin Creative 