I've been on Facebook for a very long time, and opened dozens of client accounts and pages on it as well, so I can answer from both a personal and business perspective.
When I started on FB, the business side was a great way to stay in touch with customers, announce new things, even the ads worked fairly well with a CTR above 3%. On the personal side, I was able to stay in touch with distant relatives and gain a window into their lives. I felt like I was more a part of the lives of close family and friends. So FB was everything social media promised - a way to connect, stay involved, and expand reach for business.
Then things changed. What worked once in business didn't work anymore, and FB kept pushing for more money to even show normal posts to followers. CTR on FB ads dropped like a stone. I became an admin for several groups and found that some of the members were only interested in intellectual property theft, or doing driveway spam.
More and more of my friends and relatives began leaving and then the US election cycle hit. The sheer number of hate-filled, fact-less BS posts was overwhelming. It gave me a sick feeling about people I thought I knew as they bought into the obvious lies of the latest conspiracy of the week. It became dangerous to post an opinion that didn't match the opinion expressed on that account or in that group.
And then came the big reveal. That while FB was making it impossibly difficult for me and my clients to do business on their platform, they were selling my information and that of my unsuspecting friends to companies who were manipulating opinions. It became obvious as time went on and various hearings were conducted that this was the true corporate purpose of FaceBook. They didn't care about my ads, or my daily connections with friends across the globe. They only cared about how much my account was worth to whatever group wanted to pay big bucks for it.
Even worse I found that they NEVER delete an account - that their user numbers are falsely inflated by these inactive accounts to make them look better to prospective clients who want to pay for access to user info.
I'm still on FB - I have to be for business reasons. But I have seen a big drop-off in active users just in my groups. It's become a wasteland of activity. I use FB because I have to, but I use Steem and Discord because I WANT to. And my fondest wish is to see some blockchain company come out with an FB killer. Something that can hold true to the best parts of what social media and FB had to offer, without the behind the scenes manipulation and sale of the user.
Lost faith? Yeah you could say that. Because right now the only thing I feel for FB is sheer disgust.
