Over the years, the role of Facebook has changed drastically. When we were in middle school and high school Facebook was used to connect people. You could like your friends posts, post on their wall, create Facebook groups to communicate before group texts were even invented. It used to be the go to way for friends to communicate. Facebook tries to pull the Nastalgia from its users with the “Your Memories on Facebook” addition as seen below:
@samtwomiller Facebook making me feel real nostalgic (and also old) with this throwback. Miss you brotha! pic.twitter.com/RzdMA29UCf
— John Atha (@j0hnAtha) January 29, 2018
Now since the evolution of social media, Facebook is seen as a much more political sphere as explained in the article below
https://www.wired.com/2017/02/politics-have-turned-facebook-into-a-steaming-cauldron-of-hate/
Facebook has not figured out how to use this to their advantage and it is hurting them as a platform. Less for connecting and more for sharing our opinions. Whether that be about politics, the news, how we feel about a certain sports team.
With all of this change, and all of these elements of Facebook that are seemingly useless now the question becomes how do they evolve to stay relevant. In my opinion, the best way to fix Facebook would be to expand the capabilities of the platform. They could create new channels and new elements to the social media site that allow people to discuss topics. These forums would resemble groups but there could be a pre -canning process so that the only people allowed into the forums are people who have actual interest in the topics being discussed.
It's time for @twitter to confirm a real name and real person behind every account, and for @facebook to to get far more stringent on the same. I don't care what the user name is. But there needs to be a single human behind every individual account .
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) January 28, 2018
As Mark Cuban shows in this tweet, people want interactions with real people.
By doing this, Facebook could now become the place where people go to having meaningful discussions about topics they have interest in. Facebook would definitely stay relevant and there would be more of a need for the site.
I really like the idea you presented of creating channels where people can go, but they can only enter if they have prior interest. I think that’s a really interesting proposal especially because of the fact that internet trolls have created a lot of issues in the past. I also think that this could be a great idea because it could certainly reduce hate and spread positive thinking and solution driving in the social media sphere. I also really appreciate that you mention the “memories” function of Facebook because I think that that is one of my favorite things about Facebook. I love seeing my memories from years past and I think that it allows me to reconnect with people that I might not have talked to in recent years.