Best Column

Why Facebook is on the way out

Goldman Sachs' $1.5 billion investment in the social-networking giant obscures the fact that Facebook's best days are behind it, says Douglas Rushkoff at CNN

On the face of things, says Douglas Rushkoff at CNN, all signs "appear to be pointing up" for Facebook. Its youthful founder, Mark Zuckerberg, was Time's Man of the Year, "the movie about him seems likely to be an Oscar winner," and investment bank Goldman Sachs is steering $1.5 billion the company's way. "But appearances can be deceiving." AOL made its disastrous merger with Time Warner just as its fortunes peaked; MySpace was also at its "peak of popularity" when it was bought by Rupert Murdoch in 2005. Goldman Sachs' investment is a sign that Facebook is on the decline, writes Rushkoff—and Zuckerberg knows it. But how could the site, which attracts more people than any other on the Internet, lose its attraction? Here, an excerpt:

Social media is itself as temporary as any social gathering, nightclub or party. It's the people that matter, not the venue. So when the trend leaders of one social niche or another decide the place everyone is socializing has lost its luster or, more important, its exclusivity, they move on to the next one, taking their followers with them.

We will move on, just as we did from the chat rooms of AOL, without even looking back. When the place is as ethereal as a website, our allegiance is much more abstract than it is to a local pub or gym. We don't live there, we don't know the owner, and we are all the more ready to be incensed by the latest change to a privacy policy, or to learn that every one of our social connections has been sold to the highest corporate bidder.

Read the full article at CNN.

Recommended

Will America ban TikTok?
Deleting TikTok.
Briefing

Will America ban TikTok?

Will GPT-4 change the world?
An illustration of a brain on a blue background overlaid with computer-like imagery
Today's big question

Will GPT-4 change the world?

What the CEOs are saying
An illustration of a pair of scissors cutting strings attached to employees
Briefing

What the CEOs are saying

New carbon capture technology can turn carbon into baking soda
Ocean and sky.
it wasn't all bad

New carbon capture technology can turn carbon into baking soda

Most Popular

DeSantis' no good, very bad week
Ron DeSantis at a podium
Behind the scenes

DeSantis' no good, very bad week

Essential molecules for life may have been 'delivered' to Earth from space
Asteroid Ryugu.
alien invasion

Essential molecules for life may have been 'delivered' to Earth from space

Mosquito species from South America discovered in Florida
Culex lactator.
new in town

Mosquito species from South America discovered in Florida