Is it true it's mostly old people that use Facebook in the US? If so, what do people primarily use to stay in touch with friends and such?

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Sukaichan92@reddit

Facebook at this point is for the out of touch people, and the really old people who always have something really stupid and negative to say.

They should all log off, because it’s their bedtime, and time for the old folks home.

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Reddit is an echo chamber on "I don't use Facebook" but its still a very popular site and app. The thing is though its basically Reddit now as they really push the Facebook Groups thing, while people don't really post to their profiles as much just like hardly anyone posts to their profile here.

Facebook is also used by businesses. If a restaurant doesn't have a website, they likely have a Facebook page. And I find it easier to find core information on Facebook than say, Instagram.

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Jwakkawa@reddit

The only people that use facebook are foreigners and people over 50. Seriously, it's a dead site. it's dead, like myspace kinda dead.

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WillyBluntz89@reddit

Woah, you're telling me that I can post to my profile?

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Curmudgy@reddit

I generally avoid restaurants with only Facebook pages because it's usually impossible to find their menus. It probably doesn't help that I don't have a Facebook account. But there are so many restaurants with their own web pages that I needn't waste my time on those that don't have them.

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BaseballNo916@reddit

The only reason I use Facebook is for groups and for selling stuff.

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PersonalitySmall593@reddit

Define old....

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Embarrassed-Weird173@reddit

40 or older. Sad that I'm going to hit that in just a few years.

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PersonalitySmall593@reddit

I'm 41....that is NOT old ffs

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Embarrassed-Weird173@reddit

They say if you keep repeating something, you may eventually believe it. So keep it up.

Meanwhile, I'm 36 and having pains in my internal organs (spleen or gallbladder?) randomly, losing teeth here and there, and have neck pain when sleeping (it's 7 am now and I'm still trying to fall asleep since midnight). Oh and my shoulder is still in pain from helping a friend help paint his house... Back on like January 20th.

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Jwakkawa@reddit

yeah you're just fucked up dude. You shouldn't be falling apart in your 30s.

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Taliforn@reddit

If this is serious, you need to go to like several doctors. It is not normal for anyone, let alone a 36 year old, to just randomly be losing teeth.

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Embarrassed-Weird173@reddit

One of them was likely a cavity that I was unaware of that had lowered the structural integrity.

The other was a crown that stuck into the candy and broke in half.

Doctors (dentists) want too much money to fix things, so I fully expect dentures.

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ProfessionalAir445@reddit

I’m 41 and feel exactly the same as I did at 25.

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mmbg78@reddit

I have weird pains in the spleen area too….I’m older but I get you!

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PersonalitySmall593@reddit

Im physically fucked up (to a different ways) but it has little to do with age but more to do with working physically demanding jobs since 16.

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Chickenman70806@reddit

‘Old’ starts at 69, said the 66 year old

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sgtm7@reddit

It is not young. It is "older". Good news--- You will probably be older, for much longer than you were younger.

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royalhawk345@reddit

It's older than most people.

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BaseballNo916@reddit

I’m 33 and I have some friends who still regularly use it, some that don’t. I think it’s way less popular with gen z.

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TheYeast1@reddit

30+

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Western-Passage-1908@reddit

Millennial and up

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Swurphey@reddit

Discord if I'm on my computer and Snapchat if I'm not but only because Snapchat allows for far better shitposing ability, most people I know just use it as a glorifed texting app. None of my friends use social media much and I don't use it at all, the accounts I do have are technicalities so I can see shit on Twitter when it's linked from somewhere or for free shit in mobile games by liking whatever shitty Facebook page they're trying to shill, shit like that

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Makeup_life72@reddit

I’ve never had a Facebook account. I graduated high school 30 years ago and anyone that I want to see I have direct contact with. Anyone else, I don’t care.

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Astute_Primate@reddit

I'm a high school teacher. My students (14-18) usually just text each other. Social media really isn't impressive to them anymore

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PlanMagnet38@reddit

I use texting, voice calls, FaceTime/Zoom/Teams. I also send out printed holiday cards once a year. If people want to be in my life, they can be in my life, not just observing my life.

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Prize_Consequence568@reddit

"Is it true it's mostly old people that use Facebook in the US?"

No.

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ketamineburner@reddit

Is it true it's mostly old people that use Facebook in the US?

That's my understanding.

If so, what do people primarily use to stay in touch with friends and such?

I don't know what other people do. I call or text people. I am not on any social media.

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InfidelZombie@reddit

In my experience they don't keep in touch. Social media (where you know everyone personally who you're connected with) is dead, and it's truly tragic because the heyday of Facebook was a wonderful, magical time full of strong connections and joy.

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jjmawaken@reddit

I'm in my 40's and have been using FB since it started being popular. I do see people my age or older there most often. Not sure what the kids use these days (probably an app I've never heard of or don't enjoy).

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Woodinvillian@reddit

Facebook is very useful in my suburban community especially among homeowners. My local government communicates there and there are various Facebook neighborhood groups set up that are moderated by locals.

Reddit never gained traction in the same way that Facebook did for this purpose.

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redditprofile99@reddit

My daughter is in highschool and she says only old people use Facebook, lol. From what I gather Instagram is the new Facebook

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vengefulgrapes@reddit

I'm 21. The people I know tend to use Discord, Instagram, Snapchat, and text messages.

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Cultural_Ebb4794@reddit

Discord

So like jerking off and other degen shit?

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vengefulgrapes@reddit

…do you think Discord is a porn app?

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jlanarino@reddit

Mid Fourties here. I gave up on Facebook. I really hated seeing how racists my High School friends and family were. Honestly at this point anyone I want to talk to is in my phone.

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scudsone@reddit

I’m medium-old (mid 40s) with a couple kids. I use Facebook all the time for neighborhood stuff (hate reading people’s NIMBY complaints, plus news about restaurants and other local businesses) and school stuff (announcements, events) and I’m also a member of a a couple travel related groups and a industry-specific group for my profession. Basically I use it like another version of Reddit. But almost never to chat or keep up with my actual friends and family. For that it’s mostly instagram or individual group chats in iMessage or WhatsApp for the freaks with green bubbles.

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vaspost@reddit

I get all the school notices via email. I will never signup for Facebook.

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scudsone@reddit

That sounds lovely for you, LOL.

My kids’ school has a habit posting stuff on Facebook first and then only sending out the email like a day before. Ugh.

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IneffableOpinion@reddit

That’s how I am too. I have relatives on there and my neighborhood group. I use messenger to talk to people. I do learn about events on there but not as much as before. Especially now that it’s 99% advertising, Ai experiments shoved in your face and “digital content”. I was part of the first group to sign up when it was invented and we used it to stay in touch with people you might not see very often otherwise. It was fun to see what your friends were up to. Now it’s just garbage content I never wanted to see. It’s so far removed from the original purpose it’s almost useless.

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scudsone@reddit

Yeah I also joined Facebook when it was still only for colleges (as a freshly graduated alum but still with access to an .edu email) in like the second or third round of expansion beyond Harvard. Used it for everything for the first 5-10 years. Now besides the groups I mentioned above, it’s mostly ai garbage and the occasional post by my mother or other relatives and family friends of her generation (basically boomers). Thankfully they don’t forward too much nonsense, mostly vacation photos.

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ComesInAnOldBox@reddit

Instagram and WhatsApp are both owned by Facebook.

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scudsone@reddit

Never said they weren’t. But they are distinct and different in obvious ways

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HotButteredPoptart@reddit

I'm 37 and gave up on Facebook a couple years ago. I have a phone that I can call or text people, which I did when I was on FB. I hated messenger.

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Haunting-Jello2059@reddit

I'm an American and I am wondering the same thing. I still have my facebook to sell things and to keep in touch with any big life updates from my home town crew (small town of 2,000). I'm a casual Tiktok or IG scroller, and relatively new to reddit. Not sure anything has really taken over from facebook, things feel pretty fragmented at the moment.

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sshlinux@reddit

Not true lol

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PomeloPepper@reddit

A lot of 20-30 year olds in my family use it to show off the kids.

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Accomplished-Tank774@reddit

I have nothing but reddit. I use a phone number to keep in touch with anyone important. That being said I've lost contact with a lot of people.

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westslexander@reddit

I'm 53. I don't have Facebook. To much high school style drama. If I want to keep in touch with someone I simply pick up my phone and call or text. I expect them to do the same. This is the way to do it.

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Uni-Writes@reddit

For the most part, Facebook’s users are usually 40+ in terms of age. Most younger people use Instagram as a way to stay in contact

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vaspost@reddit

For personal communication most people just text (iMessage). It's the lowest common denominator... every phone can receive a text without installing and signing up with a 3rd party application. It's simple and works without any weird tracking.

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vaspost@reddit

My mom finally gave up trying to get me to signup for Facebook. Now she is starting to understand why I never will.

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Rogue-Telvanni@reddit

I stopped using Facebook almost a decade ago at this point, but I have kept my profile and the app because I use chats a lot still.

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Constellation-88@reddit

So different generations have their preferred social media apps. Facebook is mostly used by millennials boomers and Gen X because that was the first social media app that really gained popularity that is also still around today. As Gen Z got older, they wanted to dust themselves from their parents generations, and so they moved over to Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok.

Although Instagram is used by multiple generations as well , Gen Z is pretty much the main driving force of Snapchat and TikTok.

Of course they’re always going to be outliers, but the only Gen Z people I know who have Facebook are people who have relatives and other countries that they want to stay in contact with.

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Confetticandi@reddit

Yes. Younger people use ig and WhatsApp group chats

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Particular_Owl_8029@reddit

It started out for college kids when Mark was in college and got locked in at that age and as they got older nobody younger joined. So Zuckerburg is the minimun age in the US

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G00dSh0tJans0n@reddit

I think. I deleted my account 5 years ago. I do miss FB marketplace because Craigslist sucks

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Yankee_chef_nen@reddit

My 82 year old father uses Facebook to keep in touch with his friends and siblings.

50 year old me doesn’t even have Facebook. Make of that what you will.

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shelwood46@reddit

Yeah, I'm 60 and I stopped using Facebook years ago, although I still have my account becuase I use it to log into some apps. My family mostly just texts. I keep up with friends on Bluesky.

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JimBones31@reddit

I use Facebook messenger to stay in touch with most my friends and simple texts for the rest.

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StationOk7229@reddit

Does anyone still use Facebook? I'm old and I stopped using it 5 years ago.

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tara_tara_tara@reddit

I have to use it because there are some vendors and organizations that use FB Groups for things I cannot miss.

I do have a Chrome extension that hides all posts and the only time I see anything is when I go into a group to see their content.

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Tommy_Wisseau_burner@reddit

I only use it for Facebook marketplace and surrogate meetup groups for when I moved to Tampa bay. I don’t use it for anything personal

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cavall1215@reddit

I don't think people use it for the feed anymore. They go to it for specific purposes like Groups, Marketplace, Messenger, retail pages, etc.

I've got an extended family group on it that keeps me tied to it and also use Messenger because it's hard to convince one person, let alone two or more people, to collectively move to another messaging service. I don't care enough to put together a persuasive argument about why people should use Signal.

I've also heard that some younger people are starting to use it more for networking purposes, since it skews older.

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NamwaranPinagpana@reddit (OP)

Facebook and Messenger is the standard platform of communications here in the Philippines. A lot of us barely text or call now, and we just buy data to use Messenger. Lots even use it for online business. Wouldn't surprise me if a few other countries used it that way as well.

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rexpup@reddit

If a business had their store or service through facebook I would never use it in a million years

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NamwaranPinagpana@reddit (OP)

I think we've invested too much to drop it at this point. 🤷🏾‍♂️ lol

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ComesInAnOldBox@reddit

Christ, is that ever the truth. Even ads for legitimate businesses are often stolen and used by scammers.

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appleparkfive@reddit

People still use it for messenger, but I feel like that's a separate thing at this point right? It works between Facebook and IG accounts.

If Messenger didn't exist, Facebook altogether would be a graveyard years ago. Moreso than it is now

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curlyhead2320@reddit

And marketplace. Facebook marketplace is the only reason I’m tempted to use Facebook again. But nah, still not worth it.

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Embarrassed-Weird173@reddit

Old people still use it to spread racism and "Jesus bless" and such.

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LoverlyRails@reddit

My parents love Facebook. They're in their 70s.

My daughter (who's a teenager) recently made a Facebook account because she wanted to follow some local businesses. (A lot of them still use Facebook).

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Many_Pea_9117@reddit

It's excellent for planning parties and events. No other social media is as good.

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lisasimpsonfan@reddit

Since anyone over 40 is old then I am one of those oldies who uses face book. My daughter and her friends in their 20s still use it.

I use facebook because I live in a very small township (we don't even have a post office) and it is an easy way to keep up with happenings in the surrounding area. Like all the holiday events, farmers markets, fundraisers, lost pets, etc... Facebook has taken over the place of a church bulletin board.

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Curmudgy@reddit

I'm an old person and have never used Facebook. But I've been using computers long enough to understand privacy.

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HotSauce2910@reddit

Gen Z is mostly Instagram. I think Snapchat as well, but tbh I barely know anyone who use it actively anymore.

Amongst Redditors or gamers, discord is pretty common too.

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Bluemonogi@reddit

I don’t know what you consider old. People I know ages 30ish to 60’s are using Facebook for one thing or another- marketplace, messenger, business, staying in touch with family or friends. My 90 year old dad has never used Facebook. My 20 something or younger relatives don’t use it as much.

I use the messenger part and some other things about Facebook.

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Penguin_Life_Now@reddit

I am 56 and most of the people I know that use facebook use it primarily to keep in touch with extended family members and friend groups.

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cdb03b@reddit

Those in their late 30s early 40s were in college when it was school only. Many of us still use it to keep up with those friends.

But for the general populace it is predominantly those over 60 I think.

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Quick_Adeptness7894@reddit

Recently I was trying to contact an old friend of my mom's (in her 70s) and I was really surprised I couldn't easily find her on Facebook, or any of her kids (50s), as I think these are the prime demographics to be on the site. For people in their 40s/50s especially, Facebook arrived when they were undeniably young, and they've just stuck with it.

It's the primary way I communicate with family members and see what they're up to. And whether they really use it or not, it seems like all my cousins' kids get an account once they become teenagers.

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ageekyninja@reddit

Millennials and older yeah lol

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Gunther482@reddit

If we are considering millennials to be old then yes for the most part though millennials will usually use FB in conjunction with Instagram whereas it’s more likely for older generations to just use FB as their standalone social media site.

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Smart_Engine_3331@reddit

Almost everyone i know has a FB account. A lot of people seem to be getting on BlueSky now though.

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CinemaSideBySides@reddit

Kind of. I'm a millennial and most people in my age group drifted away from Facebook. Some still post photos, since it is a decent way to share photos of a trip or something with lots of people. But the layout has become increasingly unusable, particularly the way every other post is a "suggested post," often chock full of AI photos

For keeping in touch, personally I do it old school - texting and meeting in person.

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illegalsex@reddit

I guess? My feed is now a ghost town flooded with algorithm slop content, and there is nothing social about it at all. I just have it as a backup contact list of friends and family in case I don't have their phone numbers.

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joepierson123@reddit

My local farmers market uses it to tell you what's fresh came in today otherwise I don't use it

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Real-Psychology-4261@reddit

Define old. I use it to sell things on Marketplace, catch up on some news, follow some groups and topics I’m interested in, and follow anything my friends post (which isn’t much). I’m 40 and have had Facebook for 20 years.

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SapienSRC@reddit

My friend group and I have a Discord channel that we use, other than that text for family. The only social media I use is Reddit.

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ActionNo365@reddit

Kind of. Facebook is full of bots and scam artists. Everyone can get on it and that's the major issues. Everyone can get on it Text messages, phone calls etc. You don't want to put private information out on a website being scanned by troll farms and not farms. You'll end up getting cold texted about some gift arrivals scam or get a weird news feed. Facebook was huge... Then the entire developing world was able to get on it and everyone from the developed world saw their behavior and bailed.

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boboskibo@reddit

Yeah, FB is largely a Millennial+ crowd.

It really depends on the friend/family circle. Some use Messenger, Instagram, Snapchat, Telegram, WhatsApp, Discord... the list goes on

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brak-0666@reddit

I don't know how you're defining old. I'm 47 and haven't looked at Facebook in years. Just deleted the app off my phone to free up some space, actually. My mother is in her 70's and she uses it, mostly just because there's a group for our neighborhood.

As for staying in touch with my friends, I either use discord or text them directly.

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OkBlock1637@reddit

Discord

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Vachic09@reddit

The average age is older than other social media platforms. I mostly use it to keep tabs on family and my hometown. It's also the primary communication platform for group events for at least some people.

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Many_Pea_9117@reddit

I'm in my 30s, and the majority of my friend group uses a mix of fb and ig. Organizing events on fb is superior to all other social media. We also use whatsapp, discord, and messenger daily.

I have two close friend groups, one spread between dc and Baltimore that I go to big events and spend holidays with, and a local friend group that we spend most weekends with. We have maybe a dozen or so group chats between the different social media for gaming or meeting up or special events like planning big events, trips, workouts.

I have two runnings/cycling groups, a group for if there are bachelor parties coming up or wedding planning, holiday planning between those of us with houses, convention/event planning, general daily chat, video game or tcg specific chats, my wife has a "girls only" chat, and then there's a "boys only" chat, and we have several roommate chats from different past houses we lived with and we now use to chitchat daily with former housemates who moved out of the area.

Social media is a necessary evil because it let's us reach out and connect regularly with friends all over the country and overseas. We have very good friends in Korea, Europe, LA, Texas, NYC, DC/Baltimore, Colorado, and several other random places. Not to mention family up in Boston, PA, Socal, etc.

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Airplade@reddit

I'm old and remember when the internet was a flashing green dot on a 90lb CRT.

I think I was on FB a few times back then.

I secretly look down on my peers who use FB. They get insulted when their "friends" don't like their posts. So fucking stupid if you ask me.

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NamwaranPinagpana@reddit (OP)

They get insulted when their "friends" don't like their posts.

Woww that's insane. How prevalent is this?

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ComesInAnOldBox@reddit

He's joking.

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wcpm88@reddit

Not prevalent at all, in my experience.

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ComesInAnOldBox@reddit

Millennials are considered "old people" now?

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HotTopicMallRat@reddit

I personally use facebook for marketplace and upsetting my local community

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shotsallover@reddit

I have multiple groups of friends who have migrated to Slack or Discord for the group chat. Most of us have abandoned Facebook to the ad bots.

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InterPunct@reddit

I'm old and Facebook is a good way to know that if you're using it, I probably don't want to keep in touch with you.

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NamwaranPinagpana@reddit (OP)

What's wrong with the people you know that use Facebook if I may ask? 😬

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YoungKeys@reddit

iMessages. Social Media app usage in America is more geared towards the interest graph (TikTok, Instagram, YouTube) rather than social graph these days.

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NamwaranPinagpana@reddit (OP)

Oh wow that's interesting now that you mentioned it.

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