As friend number 4 publicly deletes their Facebook account, I'm sat here thinking to myself I can almost see why.
It was great, that is to say it is still great, but not in the same way as everyone originally joined it for.
Remember the Poke button? When was the last time someone used it?
Or, more to the point, where is it on the new layout?
I think it sits under the sponsored links, and I use the word 'think' loosely. I think Birthdays sit down there too. Making them impossible to notice and oh so easy to forget. Hardly user friendly.
The redesign makes culling those unwanted friends even easier. It started when Crispin Porter/Burger King made Whopper Sacrifice. People started realising that they could easily lose those 'lesser friends' that they never communicated with.
The introduction of the newsfeed/timeline has brought with it the 'hide' feature. Now those annoying comments or boring people can now be hidden from view. I think I've used this feature so successfully that I know have very little actually going on anymore. Why I haven't culled them I guess is for another day.
Groups have been overtaken by Fan Pages, yet these are haven't really added to anything. They appear in my feed but other than Aleksandr the Meerkat and Morphsuits, nobody seems to use these to their potential.
Even though statistics show usage is going up, I'm seeing everyone's usage go down. Though the transition between University and 'real world' is probably a major factor in what I'd call normal usage to decline.
Even when events are created, they now seem to get little response. It's now easier quicker and less hassle to text everyone to let them know I'm off to the pub. Why? Because I know everyone will get the message and I'll get a response.
Have we all grown up? Have we all realised Facebook isn't the be all and end all to communicating with each other?
Have we started sending more texts, making more calls and actually seeing people in 3D? Or, have we migrated to LinkedIn, Twitter and emails?
I'd love to know if you've seen a change in behaviour.