Facebook Says, ‘How Do You Do, Fellow Kids?’

Back in the day, Facebook was the place to be. In Nigeria, like many parts of the world, the platform was synonymous with youthful socializing. As secondary school students, we would head to cybercafes after class, spending our limited allowance to buy browsing time—usually 30 minutes to an hour. For many of us, that wasn’t nearly enough. We’d stretch our budgets to buy more time, just to keep up with friends, post random thoughts, or dive into trending topics on our timelines. Being online was thrilling and felt like a lifeline to the world beyond.

But those golden days have faded, and Facebook is struggling to keep the attention of today’s youth. In 2014, a Pew Research Center study revealed that 71% of U.S. teens were on Facebook. Fast forward to 2022, and that number had nosedived to 32%, with only a slight increase to 33% last year. Edison Research mirrored these findings in other countries. Meta has been tight-lipped about the precise demographics of its users, but Tom Alison, the head of Facebook, noted that the platform still boasts 40 million daily active users in the U.S. and Canada between the ages of 18 and 29.

In Nigeria, Facebook was once a rite of passage for university students. If you weren’t on the platform, you were out of the loop—not one of the big boys or big girls. Keeping up with the latest trends meant being active on Facebook. Deleting your account would have been social suicide back then. Today, however, losing your Facebook account feels more like a minor annoyance, one you’d quickly shrug off.

My experience is far from unique. Across Nigeria, the story is much the same—Facebook has shifted from the center of our social lives to the outskirts. Yet, Meta isn’t giving up. In an attempt to reconnect with socially anxious twenty-somethings, the company recently published a blog post titled, “Navigating Your 20s with Facebook.”

According to the post, Facebook is the perfect companion for navigating the tumultuous decade of your twenties. The blog speaks of college graduations, relocations, first jobs, and the thrill of living on your own. “It can be a hectic (and fun) decade, and Facebook is here to help,” it reads. But how many twentysomethings are actually reading Facebook’s blog? More importantly, does anyone outside of tech journalists even glance at it?

Still, if Nigerian youths do stumble upon it, they might find something intriguing. The post highlights Facebook groups like “Females in Nigeria,” a space for Nigerian women with a strong sense of community. These groups are among the few parts of Facebook that still resonate with young adults, offering a sense of belonging. But as appealing as this sounds, it doesn’t quite mask the growing disconnect between Facebook and Gen Z.

Facebook also recommends that you might meet the love of your life on Facebook Dating, which feels a bit far-fetched for most of us who remember the platform’s early days. That said, I did meet a couple of girls on Facebook, particularly before my first trips to Ghana and Ivory Coast. However, it’s hard to imagine Gen Z flocking to Facebook in search of love when they’re more likely swiping left or right on apps like Tinder or Bumble.

One thing the app does get right about Gen Z, especially in Nigeria, is the rising trend of secondhand shopping. Facebook Marketplace, in particular, has carved out a niche. Whether motivated by sustainability, economic constraints, or simply the thrill of finding a deal, young people are flocking to buy and sell pre-loved items. In Nigeria, where the cost of living can be tough on a young person’s wallet, shopping secondhand has become trendy. And unlike the more anonymous Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace gives buyers a way to vet sellers by peeking into their profiles, which sometimes reveals mutual friends—a small comfort in an otherwise risky transaction.

Even with Marketplace, though, it has competition. Rising Gen Z apps like Fizz, which focuses on college students, have already introduced their own marketplace features, aiming to steal the spotlight. As Fizz founder Teddy Solomon explained to TechCrunch, “There’s that kind of stigma around, like, if I sell something on Craigslist, I might get kidnapped. And Facebook marketplace … Gen Z is not using Facebook.” It’s clear that even as Facebook tries to stay relevant, the cultural shift is well underway.

For many Nigerians, Facebook was once the gateway to all things social, from discovering local concerts to coordinating birthday parties. Now, that gate has shifted. Today, Instagram posts, WhatsApp groups, or SMS-based party-planning apps like Partiful are more likely to serve as the go-to platforms for event planning and social discovery. Canva-designed graphics plastered across Instagram Stories have replaced those old Facebook event invitations. The landscape has changed, and the Mark Zuckerberg invention is struggling to find its place in it.

Despite this, the platform isn’t giving up. Earlier this year, the app marked its 20th anniversary by hosting an event with young creators to brainstorm ways to remain culturally relevant. The company distributed pamphlets boldly stating, “We are not your mom’s Facebook,” and proclaimed itself as “a hub for all things culturally happening in the platform’s underground.” It feels like a long shot, but stranger things have happened. Take Abercrombie, for example—a brand that dominated youth culture about 20 years ago, disappeared, and then reemerged with a stock price surge of 900%.

Perhaps there’s still hope for Facebook to reinvent itself and recapture the attention of Nigeria’s youth. After all, even Mark Zuckerberg has undergone a personal rebrand. Could Facebook stage a similar comeback? Maybe, just maybe, one day it will be cool again. Until then, it remains in that awkward phase, like the older kid at a party full of middle schoolers, asking, “How do you do, fellow kids?”

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