Since this has been a key speaking level in social media circles over the past week, it’s price discussing the deserves of the newest “Fb is useless” proclamations.
Final week, the New York Instances revealed an opinion piece by Julia Angwin by which she argued that Meta’s current decline in every day lively customers is the start of the tip for Fb, and for the corporate typically.
Angwin stated that Fb is now getting into its “zombie period,” largely as a result of younger customers view the platform as “peak cringe.”
As per Angwin: “Loss of life is totally different on the web. Lifeless firms like AOL and Yahoo are nonetheless technically with us. You may go to their web sites. They’ve clients. They might even be worthwhile, as they lower workers and monetize their final remnants of site visitors. … As an organization’s model ages, its founders go away. The thrill evaporates. The inventory shrivels to a fraction of its former glory because the person base withers to these captured by an previous e-mail account or good friend group.”
Angwin predicted that, primarily based on the declining reputation of Fb, its flagship social media platform, Meta “is at first of an extended, sluggish decline that may set off aftershocks to our economic system and our society.”
However is that true? May Meta really be on the way in which out, primarily based on a three-month tally of every day lively person decline, which can be the primary time there was a decline like that within the firm’s historical past?
In some methods, Angwin has some legitimate factors. However total, it’s far too early to be sounding the alarm on the enterprise.
Sure, Meta’s every day lively person rely did decline in Q1 2026, with 20 million fewer individuals mixed logging into Fb, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger and Threads within the first three months of this 12 months, in comparison with This autumn.
Twenty million individuals is quite a bit, however at Meta’s scale, it’s solely a small fraction of its total viewers.
The inhabitants of the world is round 8.3 billion individuals, in line with Worldometer, so even at 3.56 billion every day lively, nearly half of the whole inhabitants of the planet continues to be checking right into a Meta-owned platform each single day.
Although that’s probably not Angwin’s level. As Angwin stated, it’s not essentially about person counts, as there are clearly lots of people who nonetheless examine into Fb each day to see what their associates and family have posted. It’s extra about resonance, and on that entrance, it is a legitimate argument.
Meta’s lively utilization amongst youthful audiences has been in decline for years. Knowledge launched as a part of the Fb Recordsdata expose in 2021 confirmed that the app has seen declining utilization amongst individuals aged beneath 25 for a while.
Meta additionally shared information final 12 months as a part of its protection in opposition to an antitrust case introduced by the FTC. That information confirmed that person posting has declined considerably in recent times, with time spent viewing content material posted by associates now solely a minor aspect of FB and IG.
The explanation for utilizing Fb, specifically, has advanced considerably, with individuals now spending extra time on TikTok and Instagram than they’re trying out Fb posts and clips.
In broader phrases, the entire idea of social media has shifted extra in direction of leisure than connection, which is a extra elementary shift. However that additionally signifies that whereas individuals are nonetheless logging onto Fb, most are solely trying out if their family and friends have shared any updates. Then they transfer onto different apps the place they spend extra time.
So in that respect, Angwin’s argument holds some weight, in that Fb itself is much less related than it as soon as was, primarily based on total engagement per person per session.
However that’s additionally why Meta is seeking to the subsequent stage, and investing closely within the newest technological developments, with a purpose to be sure that it could stay a related, priceless connective platform for the subsequent stage of digital interactivity.
On this respect, it’s additionally straightforward to level to the perceived failure of the metaverse as one other sign of the corporate’s potential decline. However the truth that Meta was in a position to spend over $100 billion on VR growth, after which pivot to AI, underlines the fiscal power of its enterprise, in addition to the capability it has to tackle such bets.
Finally, if these synthetic intelligence investments don’t repay, that can be a serious concern for the enterprise. However Meta made $200.97 billion in 2025, representing a 22% year-over-year improve. As well as, the corporate has principally destroyed the native advert companies in lots of areas.
To counsel that Meta, as an organization, may very well be on its method in direction of obsolescence appears extra like clickbait than the rest.
Meta is investing within the applied sciences which are most definitely to take the mantle within the subsequent period. And whereas the corporate might have deprioritized VR, Meta continues to be exploring the potential of VR connection, which might nonetheless be the subsequent logical evolution of on-line interactivity. On the similar time, Meta is investing in AI-powered wearables, and advancing them with AR overlays, which Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg believes might finally see these glasses supersede telephones as our key connective system.
Will that guess show right? There’s no method to make sure, however it appears probably, given the rising adoption of AI glasses: Based on CNBC, Meta offered 3x extra pairs of good glasses in 2025 than it did in 2023 and 2024 mixed. As well as, the corporate can be seeking to paved the way on AI growth, and even just lately acquired a humanoid robotic firm, eyeing one other potential alternative.
With its assets, Meta has the ability to dominate nearly any tech pattern shifting ahead, whereas its advert enterprise continues to drive extra consumption. It’s additionally lowering workers prices by integrating extra AI techniques. General, it’s exhausting to see Meta falling away anytime quickly.
Fb could also be declining in relevance, however it’s nonetheless a essential connector for greater than half of the individuals who entry it. On that entrance, suggesting that Fb is on the decline isn’t a brand new take, neither is it the main focus of Angwin’s submit.
The title of the article is “Meta is dying.” Which is an absurd, attention-seeking suggestion.
