Twenty years after its creation, what is Facebook still used for?
Despite scandals and an outdated image, the oldest online social network continues to gain users around the world.
FILE - The Facebook logo is seen on a cell phone in Boston, USA, Friday, Oct. 14, 2022. Facebook and Instagram users in Europe are getting the option to pay for ad-free versions of the social media platforms as a way to comply with the continent’s strict data privacy rules. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer, File) AP - Michael Dwyer
By: Aurore Lartigue Follow
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Nerdy,
? “
De phew
,” retorts Clémence Giondini, 22, who still has an account on the social network. Messenger is the preferred messaging service for her student life, she explains, and still requires logging in via Facebook. On the other hand, she removed the app from her phone and only uses the platform for “
targeted
” use via groups: “
to look for a concert ticket to sell or to follow good material deals shared by my club sport for example
.
Despite this “
has-been
” image that has stuck with him for several years now, twenty years after its creation in a Harvard student room,
Mark Zuckerberg
's network boasts more than three billion active monthly users. , according to
Statistica
. According to a study by the
Pew Research Center
published at the end of January, 68% of Americans say they still use Facebook, compared to 47% Instagram.
Globally, while the network is aging in the regions where it emerged, in the United States and Northern Europe, it is still very popular among young people in Southeast Asia and Africa.
Find more statistics at Statista
“
For work
”, “
to remember birthday dates
”, “
to follow information on the group in my city…
” So there are still a few reasons to stay on Facebook. But we are far from the excitement of the beginnings when Facebook revolutionized our modes of communication, when Mark Zuckerberg firmly asserted “
that a more open and more connected world is a better world
” and when Barack Obama was elected after an active campaign online, on Facebook in particular.
From the catalyst of the “Arab Spring”…
From this point of view, the social network had its heyday in 2011 with the Arab Spring. Facebook then found itself, like Twitter, at the heart of the mobilizations first in Egypt and Tunisia, then in Libya and Syria, to the point that some observers spoke of a “
Facebook revolution
”. “
It was a sort of extension of the blog revolution, except that to use a blog you had to be quite comfortable from a technical point of view
,” remembers Julien Le Bot, journalist and author of the book
Dans la head of Mark Zuckerberg*
. The great advantage of Facebook in accelerating the connection of individuals was its ease of use and its sounding board aspect.
» Thus flourished the tag “Thank you Facebook”, after the fall of President Ben Ali in Tunisia, on the emblematic Avenue Bourguiba. Subsequently, the Indignados Movement in Europe and Occupy in the United States subsequently also widely used the platform to disseminate information and coordinate actions.
But if Facebook has proven to be a powerful tool for quickly mobilizing, amplifying anger and organizing protests, its “key role” in the fall of authoritarian regimes has been judged exaggerated by many observers, who notably recalled that populations didn't necessarily have access to the internet. “
Facebook was neither necessary nor sufficient to trigger these events
,” said the site’s CEO and co-founder, Mark Zuckerberg, in 2012.
The network appears in any case as a space of freedom at the service of progressive forces. In terms of use, it also becomes an important vector of news. “
Afterwards, when we subsequently realized that political groups with opposing objectives were also capable of taking over these platforms, could organize themselves to polarize society or create fake news, we went from euphoria and candor to disenchantment and anger
,” analyzes Julien Le Bot.
...to the weapon of disinformation
The dark side of Facebook is revealed with the election of Donald Trump in 2016: its power and the millions of personal data that it concentrates in its hands make it a dangerous tool in the service of disinformation. The network is accused of allowing Russia to influence the vote. Hundreds of fake Russian profiles
bought ads
to increase tensions ahead of the US presidential election. In 2018, the
“Cambridge Analytica” scandal
, a British company which unknowingly recovered the data of 50 million Facebook users to promote Trump's victory, finally revealed the network's flaws.
After these revelations, Mark Zuckerberg promised before the American Congress to better combat disinformation and hate speech. Under pressure, Facebook is tightening the screw. Over the years and its growing popularity, the network has developed new features, going from the ability to post simple text statuses initially, to photos, videos and live content, to
Instagram-inspired
stories
, of which the parent company, Meta, is also the owner. “
Today,
” explains Julien Le Bot,
“everything that is linked to pure and hard information tends to be less well referenced by the Facebook algorithm
,” which prefers to favor publications of a personal nature by users.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerber, 33, is questioned before two US Congressional committees on April 10, 2018. REUTERS/Leah Millis
Unifying groups
If the social network is no longer what it was in terms of everyday uses, it remains central, assures Emmanuelle Patry, founder of Social Media Lab, which trains communication professionals in social networks. “
Contrary to popular belief, even though Facebook's popularity is declining among younger generations, it is still widely used. It is also a very important advertising platform with an older target than Instagram for example, which has purchasing power,
comments the expert.
It’s very powerful in terms of advertising. When advertisers and companies advertise on the Meta system (WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook), they use the Facebook ecosystem as a priority and the advertisements are multi-broadcast across all platforms.
»
“
Afterwards, what is ultra dynamic are the groups, local or based on centers of interest. I found my apartment myself through a Facebook group
,” adds the young woman. And this is a constant in the history of the social network: if it has lost the lightness of its beginnings, if it is no longer the medium that it was, Facebook remains an almost essential place for organizing the protest.
Born in 2017 and strongly pushed by the platform's algorithm, it was within these Facebook groups that the “yellow vests” social movement was structured in France the following year. At this time, ordinary users will begin to use these virtual agoras to make their demands heard by filming themselves in front of the camera. Thus emerge, outside of all union or political organizations, figures like Fly Rider. In recent days, Facebook groups have been used to organize the mobilization of farmers, and to relay their various actions.
Emmanuelle Patry also notes forms
of “forced use
” when an Instagram user posts a story and is offered to see it published at the same time on Facebook. A practice which shows that Mark Zuckerberg continues to push Facebook. This good old network with its old-fashioned image has “
almost a reassuring side
”, summarizes the specialist, who notes that it is particularly appreciated by institutional companies such as banks and insurance companies.
A powerful advertising agency
This is what undoubtedly explains why Facebook is still resisting. Twenty years later, the social network Facebook remains Meta's “
cash cow product
”, indicates Marc Bidan, university professor of information systems management at the University of Nantes. “
Meta’s business model is advertising,”
recalls the specialist.
Each of its sectors is there to contribute to a single building: the collection of data to resell it to companies. Meta therefore makes fun of the cheesy nature of the Facebook network since it allows it to capture an entire population of people in their forties, fifties and sex who would not be on Instagram. So the network continues to bring in a lot of money. Its strength is the mass of its users.
»
At the head of a small association, Élisa Richard sees herself as a pioneer of the social network in France, which she discovered as a student, thanks to American friends. “
I was on it before it came to Europe, so I only had a handful of friends.
» The barely forty-year-old remembers her enthusiasm at the time. “
I had fun finding people, I
stalked
their photos, we discovered mutual friends, we posted everything and especially party photos.
» For the young woman, it was also a place of militant expression. “
I
cried out loud!”
» she recalls, a little ashamed. Almost 20 years later, the enthusiasm has waned. Like many, she is no longer really active on the network. So why not delete your account? “
I have all my data there!
” “, she defends herself.
Because that’s where Facebook’s strength lies. If many users confess to no longer using the application, there is no question of unsubscribing. The social network has become part of our digital identity. “
We have put so much data there, we have all our friends there, that even if we are less active, even if we are suspicious, we cannot completely detach ourselves from it,”
explains Julien Le Bot. Before concluding
:
when we manage to make people unable to delete their account even though it's no longer cool and despite the criticism, it means that in terms of influence, we're still someone .
»
*In the head of Mark Zuckerberg,
Julien Le Bot, Actes Sud editions.
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