It's gone through a few shifts. First it was popular with young people, and then it became popular with middle aged people and the young people moved away. Then massive growth in the Third World hid declines in activity in the West. Now I'm not even sure if the remaining activity is even driven by humans or if it's 100% just bots talking to each other.

Some of the AI-generated content on there is so absurd that anyone of sound mind would spot it, and yet nevertheless gets hundreds of thousands of likes.

(I haven't checked the example below to see if it's a parody page or not, but there are countless real examples)

One could stay in a FB group but unfollow it so they don’t see the posts in their feed. If they’re in many FB groups, they might want to limit to following just the important ones.

…Then massive growth in the Third World hid declines in activity in the West. …

Interesting observation.

In my recent trips to Asia I have searched for restaurants and stores. It surprised me that many did not have their own websites, but instead simply had Zuckerberg pages. My reaction was, "How can this be a serious business?" I don't expect street vendors to have websites, but for brick-and-mortar restaurants, clothing, and electronics stores to have only Zuckpages struck me as bogus, so I patronized none of them.

Interesting observation.

In my recent trips to Asia I have searched for restaurants and stores. It surprised me that many did not have their own websites, but instead simply had Zuckerberg pages. My reaction was, "How can this be a serious business?" I don't expect street vendors to have websites, but for brick-and-mortar restaurants, clothing, and electronics stores to have only Zuckpages struck me as bogus, so I patronized none of them.

Third world here. It's the same.

There are many good and respectable business only with "Zuckpages" simply because that's what works. People don't spend money and effort on a website that no one will look.

Now that I think of it, social media pages are sometimes more trustworthy because people can complain about poor service or products in the comments section.

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That's fascinating. If I had just seen that picture, I would have thought it was real, even though it seems a little hard to believe a little kid in Africa would have more sculpting talent than Michelangelo himself, if I had thought about it.

So you're sure it's fake?

This is very interesting. Very soon it will be impossible to tell what is real and what isn't, on the internet, anymore. This will probably have tremendous consequences in society as well. It's a little scary to think about.

It wasn't a very good example - when I wrote the comment, I initially I used an example photo of an AI pic featuring Jesus as that was the trend I was familiar with, and all those posts were much more absurd and very obviously fake while having even crazier like-counts. But, despite the fact that the posters and commenters seemed to be "Christians" (Prods) with intent to revere rather than mock, the images are so ridiculous that sharing any of them seemed borderine blasphemous and so I replaced it just before posting.

The image I replaced it with is much more believable so the comment reads a little strange now, but it is nevertheless fake and part of a widespread engagement farming trend. Here's another example from the same trend:



The accounts posting these never even get banned. What's interesting about them too, come to think of it, is that the images in each trend seem to get less and less realistic as time goes on. As if the AI models start learning from each other rather than real pictures.

Third world here. It's the same.

There are many good and respectable business only with "Zuckpages" simply because that's what works. People don't spend money and effort on a website that no one will look.

Now that I think of it, social media pages are sometimes more trustworthy because people can complain about poor service or products in the comments section.

Since I resist having a Zuckpage account, I cannot get to the reviews. At most I usually can see the hours of operation and location.

It's not just the fingers. It's the way his whole "arm" and "hand" is positioned. Just look at it!
AI gets things *so* wrong sometimes. Not surprising, considering ZERO intelligence is involved...

Indeed, it is really Artificial Stupidity.

It is true that the 20 something crowd doesn't use Facebook like they did 15 years ago, but the platform seems far from dead.  I enjoy keeping up with friends, their adventures, how their kids are doing.  The cat videos are really fun also, LOL.  I've never had a paranoia about privacy, and I've never had a problem, it's just not an issue.  I've never used Facebook marketplace, so I don't know how that works.

Some of the groups I follow are Amtrak's Empire Builder, Amtrak's Coast Starlight, Breviary and Divine Office Discussion Group, The Librarianologist, Funeral Home & Mortuary History, Bicycle Touring for Beginners, Frank Lloyd Wright Nation, St. Patrick's Parish, and several others.  The ones I've mentioned typically have several posts a day ... VERY FAR FROM DEAD.  Some of the groups you have to join before you can post or even see who is a member.  Some, like The Divine Office group will let one ask questions as an anonymous.

I agree that a Facebook profile doesn't work well as a commercial or organization web site, unless a business or organization regularly posts new content or events.  Unless one has a Facebook account and is logged in I don't really see the point of trying to use it, but I glean a LOT of useful information through the groups I'm a part of, and in that regard it can be a lot more convenient than a string of e-mails.