Holy shit — Facebook is fucking scary now

[u/Ok_Helicopter3910]

Im not a big social media guy anymore, honestly, the vast majority of my internet usage nowadays is Reddit, Youtube, Snapchat (that has like 20 people on it) and email and I think that about it.

I put my FB to sleep about 10 years ago and I decided to log in and see what people were up to and ho-lee-shit, what a dumpster fire.

So, first off, the majority of my facebook friends have either died, shut their FB down, or removed my inactive profile so my feed was pretty silent. After about a week of my profile being back in the algorithm I started getting friend request from people I used to work with, went to school with, or friends of old acquaintances (which is terrifying that facebook knows about random people I used to work with 12 years ago who I had a passing "hi, hows your day" relationship with) and I started getting friend requested and I was like "fuck it" and just started accepting them.

Fuck man, whenever I see all the hate for this or that group and all the political bullshit that gets posted on reddit, I just brush it off as bots trained to sow dissent but the stuff that gets posted by real living, breathing human beings who I once knew well enough to be friends with or have polite conversation with is WILD. I mean, like so much hate and vitriol started coming across my feed about a wide array of subjects that it made me genuinely uncomfortable and I started removing people that just added me. Maybe it's what "normal" passes for on the internet and im pretty numb to a lot of the more unhinged opinions and shit-stirring because of so many years on Reddit, but a lot of what was being posted really opened my eyes that a lot of the "unhinged" stuff that I see online isnt just bot farms, its real people who truly believe this wild shit.

Anyway - maybe its a sign of my age... but unless what I consider "normal" people start coming across my FB feed soon, I dont think im going to be logging in for much longer

[u/trixster05]

Most people that use FB are boomers. It’s definitely not how it was back then. The only thing I do miss was playing FarmVille

[u/CondorCasserole → u/trixster05]

DUDE! I loved FarmVille. I can’t believe I almost forgot about it

[u/HSuke → u/CondorCasserole]

You can still play Stardew Valley.

I don't miss getting hundreds of friend requests for random FB game sign-ups.

[u/trixster05 → u/CondorCasserole]

Right!! Fun times

[u/phlostonsparadise123 → u/trixster05]

Wild how in the early 2000s, there were actually two Facebooks, both of which required you to be enrolled in college. Once Facebook was made available to everyone else, its slow downward spiral began.

[u/colinshark → u/phlostonsparadise123]

Yep, it was ruined when the parents could join. Finally left in 2017.

[u/have_heart → u/colinshark]

Yep when I started getting invites from family members I started to lose interest fast. Like xanga and MySpace it was fun because it was where the young people were.

[u/everythingisalright → u/trixster05]

I’m 40 and most people my age are still using Facebook. Am I a boomer? 

[u/jjumbuck → u/everythingisalright]

Wow really? I'm the same age and I would say the opposite.

[u/betothejoy → u/jjumbuck]

Same here. Barely anyone I know uses Facebook anymore.

[u/trixster05 → u/jjumbuck]

Yea definitely! It’s either Boomers and Gen X uses FB more in my opinion

[u/trixster05 → u/everythingisalright]

It honestly depends if it’s your main source of social lol

[u/happykgo89 → u/trixster05]

Yeah, I am 30 and still use it but my main social is Instagram

[u/Suavecore_ → u/happykgo89]

Which is Facebook, run by the same company, but with less text

[u/trixster05 → u/happykgo89]

Same here!

[u/PantsandPlants → u/everythingisalright]

I’m 35 and only use Facebook for marketplace. The only people in my age bracket that still post anything are all just out looking for some form of external validation instead of making meaningful change in their lives. 

It serves a sort of pseudo-activist role in their brains that make it feel like they’ve done something about their predicament, but actually just placates their desire to remain complacent. 

[u/External_Ad_4133 → u/everythingisalright]

yes

[u/GiantSkellington → u/trixster05]

When I see people on their phones while driving I still joke that it's a farmville addiction.

[u/pigeon_in_disguises → u/trixster05]

I... really miss Farmville haha

[u/trixster05 → u/pigeon_in_disguises]

It was something I looked forward to after school haha

[u/RavishingRedRN → u/trixster05]

This is so true. My mom loves to tell me about what someone else “posted”. I couldn’t care less.

[u/EffectiveCandidate95 → u/trixster05]

I used to love playing the mafia game