Facebook is just Craigslist now(theatlantic.com)
theatlantic.com
Facebook is just Craigslist now
https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2025/04/facebook-marketplace-craiglist-buy-sell/682420/
12 comments
All I ever hear about Facebook any more is just its marketplace. It's gotten to the point where I might make an account just so I can easily sell stuff locally.
I made an account to sell a cheap guitar. I listed it for $100 and used all my own original pictures.
They said my listing was suspicious and needed to verify my identity, which meant sending them a picture of me holding my drivers license next to my face.
I had a lot of other stuff to sell, so I obliged.
They said that wasn’t enough and they required another photo, this time holding my passport by my head.
I thought this was pretty crazy, but also, I had a lot of stuff to sell, and privacy is pretty much already dead so why not?
They said they could not verify my identity.
The end.
They said my listing was suspicious and needed to verify my identity, which meant sending them a picture of me holding my drivers license next to my face.
I had a lot of other stuff to sell, so I obliged.
They said that wasn’t enough and they required another photo, this time holding my passport by my head.
I thought this was pretty crazy, but also, I had a lot of stuff to sell, and privacy is pretty much already dead so why not?
They said they could not verify my identity.
The end.
Facebook has entered this weird statistical zone where “if you don’t have a Facebook account by now you’re probably a scammer.” I deleted my facebook account in 2015 and then tried to sign up again also when I had stuff to sell, they couldn’t verify me either.
You should have created an obviously fake account called like "Mark Guy" with a photo of an asian woman and you should have posted some nazi stuff. In that case your account would have been completely fine for them.
I have only briefly had a Facebook, maybe 2 or 3 times, most recently to sell/giveaway a bunch of stuff before a house move.
It was simple, easy, and reliable.
It was simple, easy, and reliable.
"thanks for the training data, goodbye"
And groups, really. Almost all local level group activity exclusively gets managed on Facebook in the cities I lived in.
If I want to have even a vague idea about what’s going on in my town it’s pretty much Facebook or a neighbor who is more plugged in than I am. Also it’s the only web presence a lot of small local businesses have.
I do keep up with some friends on Facebook but I’m very selective about adding anyone new.
I do keep up with some friends on Facebook but I’m very selective about adding anyone new.
Not just local groups - groups of any kind.
I'm part of a bunch of book collector groups because it's pretty much the only place on the internet to connect with other people around the world about it.
I'm part of a bunch of book collector groups because it's pretty much the only place on the internet to connect with other people around the world about it.
Facebook groups are the ultimate data source for LLMs. They have so much information. They are forums for specific subjects but without the friction of signing up.
What is facebook?
Everything , including facebook came out of craigslist, as is known to everyone
facelist
In the US - sure. The rest of the world -lol, no
Are you surprised that an American publication with a mostly American audience would focus mostly on the experience of Americans?
Not at all. But Facebook is not used only by Usians. So the article might seem a bit misleading for people from different parts of the world.
"American" is the correct demonym for people from the United States of American.
Fun fact, there have been a dozen other countries which were "United States of X" throughout history: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_that_include...
Fun fact, there have been a dozen other countries which were "United States of X" throughout history: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_that_include...
Yeah, at least anecdotally that's true from my observation. I grew up in the US but spent time living abroad, so have networks in multiple places.
American friends ditched the site en masse starting around 2012. By now, none of my original American circle is using the site and my timeline/feed is entirely dead except for frequent posts by foreigner friends.
American friends ditched the site en masse starting around 2012. By now, none of my original American circle is using the site and my timeline/feed is entirely dead except for frequent posts by foreigner friends.
There are some countries where Facebook is the internet as far as they’re concerned
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My wife is another Buy Nothing wizardess. It's actually a neat little community. She considers it a lone bright spot in Facebook. She's organizing a big Buy Nothing event with the local church now.
My only use of FB is as a glorified forum for community groups that haven't moved to Slack/Discord/whatever else. Visiting the actual FB UI feels like another planet, it's all weird spam content.
Facebook was awesome when it was the only social network; now we have Instagram for social image sharing, WhatsApp for messaging, Snapchat for ephemeral messaging, YouTube for social video and TikTok for social short video plus Discord and Twitch for social gaming. Even Facebook's social casual gaming moved to mobile gaming.
Facebook wanted to be the everything social network just like Amazon is the everything store but it doesn't work because we began to see specialization for every segment of Facebook. I honestly don't see appeal why anyone would use Facebook when you literally have better alternatives that are specialized for the particular niche you might be interested in e.g. images, videos, gaming etc.
Facebook wanted to be the everything social network just like Amazon is the everything store but it doesn't work because we began to see specialization for every segment of Facebook. I honestly don't see appeal why anyone would use Facebook when you literally have better alternatives that are specialized for the particular niche you might be interested in e.g. images, videos, gaming etc.
For ~a decade, Facebook replaced the address book. You wouldn't ask for a phone number; you'd add someone on Facebook.
They got greedy. Word got out about how they'd manipulate the algorithm to get you to spend hours per day there, how aggressively they mined and sold your data, etc. It became unfashionable to use. People who had spent a decade recording their lives and connecting with their friends walked away from their accounts.
In the midst of all that, they bought Instagram. I've recently moved to NYC; paradoxically, people here ask for your Instagram the way that people used to ask for your Facebook.
Social networking isn't quite as consolidated in Meta as dating is in IAC/Match, but it's close.
They got greedy. Word got out about how they'd manipulate the algorithm to get you to spend hours per day there, how aggressively they mined and sold your data, etc. It became unfashionable to use. People who had spent a decade recording their lives and connecting with their friends walked away from their accounts.
In the midst of all that, they bought Instagram. I've recently moved to NYC; paradoxically, people here ask for your Instagram the way that people used to ask for your Facebook.
Social networking isn't quite as consolidated in Meta as dating is in IAC/Match, but it's close.
It's hard to explain to Zoomers/younger people how cool Facebook was in the late 2000s to early 2010s.
It was the de facto digital means of communication for social events--the social world in your palm so you could see what everyone was up to, where the parties were, whatever.
I signed on recently (mostly to make sure my creds still worked after at least 7 years of no use) and now it's dreadfully slow and largely just ad slop. It's a remarkable decline in a platform that basically become a joke now.
It was the de facto digital means of communication for social events--the social world in your palm so you could see what everyone was up to, where the parties were, whatever.
I signed on recently (mostly to make sure my creds still worked after at least 7 years of no use) and now it's dreadfully slow and largely just ad slop. It's a remarkable decline in a platform that basically become a joke now.
>It was the de facto digital means of communication for social events--the social world in your palm so you could see what everyone was up to, where the parties were, whatever.
I think Zuck realized pretty fast that specialized competition is coming that's why he scooped up Instagram and WhatsApp so fast. Without Instagram and WhatsApp, Facebook is botched, something like Google without Chrome and Android. I really can't see how Facebook can become relevant again, their time is gone, people got tired of it. Like you said it was awesome back in the day because it was the first real social network and everybody was on Facebook but nowadays no way 90% of your friends are on Facebook. They are scattered around, mostly on Instagram, WhatsApp and Snapchat. Zuck got lease on life when he acquired Instagram and WhatsApp because they are still relevant and will be for quite some time.
I think Zuck realized pretty fast that specialized competition is coming that's why he scooped up Instagram and WhatsApp so fast. Without Instagram and WhatsApp, Facebook is botched, something like Google without Chrome and Android. I really can't see how Facebook can become relevant again, their time is gone, people got tired of it. Like you said it was awesome back in the day because it was the first real social network and everybody was on Facebook but nowadays no way 90% of your friends are on Facebook. They are scattered around, mostly on Instagram, WhatsApp and Snapchat. Zuck got lease on life when he acquired Instagram and WhatsApp because they are still relevant and will be for quite some time.
> really can't see how Facebook can become relevant again, their time is gone, people got tired of it.
Yeah my thoughts exactly.
I really can't tell who or what it's supposed to be for. It seems almost anachronistic--I still have such a positive association with the name because of fond memories of what it was ~12-15 years ago. Ironically it's only that was as I've hardly used it in a decade.
Come to think of it, it probably has something to do with the timing--it was a cornerstone of Millennial youth and the emergence of social media when it was still a new idea and before, well, everything that's happened since.
I really wonder what the actual user metrics are by type of engagement and age now (not some nonsense like DAU or something that captures an occasional idle scroll or background process).
Maybe it's just my American-centric view and it's used more worldwide? I remember messenger being a big thing for some time too, but I think that's also faded?
Yeah my thoughts exactly.
I really can't tell who or what it's supposed to be for. It seems almost anachronistic--I still have such a positive association with the name because of fond memories of what it was ~12-15 years ago. Ironically it's only that was as I've hardly used it in a decade.
Come to think of it, it probably has something to do with the timing--it was a cornerstone of Millennial youth and the emergence of social media when it was still a new idea and before, well, everything that's happened since.
I really wonder what the actual user metrics are by type of engagement and age now (not some nonsense like DAU or something that captures an occasional idle scroll or background process).
Maybe it's just my American-centric view and it's used more worldwide? I remember messenger being a big thing for some time too, but I think that's also faded?
> I honestly don't see appeal why anyone would use Facebook when you literally have better alternatives that are specialized for the particular niche you might be interested in e.g. images, videos, gaming etc.
The particular niche I am into is staying connected to friends and people I like or have an interest in. And reading their posts.
I like to mainly read posts, not watch short videos or see images without too much explanation.
The particular niche I am into is staying connected to friends and people I like or have an interest in. And reading their posts.
I like to mainly read posts, not watch short videos or see images without too much explanation.
You can use WhatsApp and/or Facebook Messenger for connecting with friends(they are both owned by Facebook) but using Facebook per se seems less and less appealing especially when it became bloated with non-friend content. Zuck is tho introducing or reintroducing "friends feed" so that might serve people better[0].
[0] https://www.theverge.com/news/637668/facebook-friends-only-f...
[0] https://www.theverge.com/news/637668/facebook-friends-only-f...
Craigslist is still popular for rental listings in NYC.
While I agree that facebook is mostly obsolete outside marketplace, one thing I cannot find substite for is small communities mostly tied to specific location. If I go to facebook it is for marketplace (we have nice dedicated web in our country that works great) but for one or two groups created for our neighbourhood and the wider area around us.
Facebook can keep the crazies. Craigslist is awesome now.