Social Media in 2024

It's 2024. A lot has changed in the country. The baby boomers are retiring, freeing up tons of jobs, cars now drive themselves, a woman is the leader of the free world, and today's top companies have consolidated amongst each other leaving little competition. But our world still revolves around social media, just a much different version than today's social networks.

 Those under 30 have never actively used Facebook. But most still have a Facebook account. Some even have accounts created by their parents when they were born and contain every moment of their childhood, at least the moments the children themselves haven't untagged. By the time Facebook came around it was filled with their lame older siblings, parents, and grandparents and was no longer cool. 2024's early social media adapters began by using Instagram and quickly moved onto the next social network when their parents caught on to the old one. Some of the minor social networks you can look forward to are Instastein where you can video chat with live experts to get your questions answered in real time, Elusive Ensemble which picks out clothing based on your specific tastes, body type, past purchases, and skin tone, and Tourist Tutor that guides you to a bar or restaurant that you'd enjoy based on previous places you've enjoyed. 

While Facebook hasn't kicked the bucket just yet, it's collecting Social Security so to speak. Those who were once active Facebook users continued to use it, albeit less frequently as time went on, but its failure was attributed to the younger generations never catching on to the Facebook phenomenon. What made Facebook catch on in the first place was that users joined because their friends did. The minute the first young person decided it wasn't cool, Facebook was doomed for a slow failure. 

" Even a few people leaving would reverberate through the entire userbase. The users are interconnected, that is the whole point. College kids are online because their friends are online, and if one domino goes, the other dominos go, don't you get that?"                                                                                    -The Social Network 

                                                 

Not that Facebook didn't try though, it pulled out all the stops to adapt with the times. The Oculus acquisition that you're hearing about now was well received when it was integrated into Facebook Chat. It was still relevant for the older generations who used to in order to stay in contact with friends, but it served the purpose as a reference guide like a modern day phone book rather than a social network actively enjoyed. 

                                   

                                   

With this new technology, much less social interaction is actually done in person. First dates, "hang out sessions", and even marriage proposals are done virtually now. Also, there are fewer conversations taking place. So much over-sharing is done on social media now that when two long-lost friends catch up instead of telling their friend about their recent trip, their friend remarks that their experienced their vacation virtually through their 360 video.