Then and Now, Facebook and Us

“People who create long trails of data that are accessible universally will have to accept and deal with stories that people are pulling out of that data,” he says.

Twenty-seven-year-old Sarah Nguyen also uses Twitter and Instagram regularly. She’s still a daily Facebook user, but logs in less than she used to.

“There’s a lot more social media coming up. Now I log on about two to three times a day whereas before it was more like six. It has decreased by half or two thirds,” she says.

Nguyen and a group of other alumni from her alma mater Ryerson University have started their own social media application called Speeker. It allows users to see what social events are happening based on where they are.

The app was inspired by their own experiences wanting to know about what was happening around them on campus.

“It’s kind of like a time capsule of the location,” she says.

Like Zhao, she doesn’t see Facebook as an integral part of her life going forward.

She believes professional social media sites such as LinkedIn will become more prominent as she moves into a career-building phase.

As for Snapchat, “I’ve never heard of it,” she says.

May Warren is currently completing a Master of Journalism at Ryerson. She hold a BA from the University of Guelph and an MA from Queens in Political Science. She is particularly interested in international economics reporting.

Sources

Image Courtesy to Agency Post.com and optenetpc.com

Interviews with Adrian J. Ebsary, Janette Zhao and Sarah Nguyen

Pew Internet – Teens, the Internet, and Communications Technology, Teens, and Coming and Going on Facebook

Facebook – Annual Report 2013