Facebook's Plan To Bring Back Teens May Have An Impact On Older Users

It's no secret that many teens have abandoned Facebook over recent years in favor of newer social media platforms. The issues have been growing since the social network became more popular with older users, resulting in an influx of parents, grandparents, and the sort of content teenagers aren't interested in. Facebook has taken steps to increase the appeal of its platform among teens, including things like AR effects in Messenger and Stories on the main platform, but now it is planning to take things up a notch.

Facebook users are getting older, an issue that is expected to get worse for the company in coming years. The social media platform was the subject of a recent leak at The Verge claiming, among other things, that Facebook's data indicates teenagers will make up less than half of the company's userbase within the next two years.

That, the leak alleges, would be joined by a smaller drop in users between the ages of 20 and 30. All the while, the leak reveals that teens aren't engaging with the platform as often as Facebook would like, raising the potential of a future in which the company's most lucrative userbase (when it comes to selling advertisements, at least) abandons ship for newer, more appealing platforms.

In a call with investors today, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed the company is going all hands on deck to bring back its youngest users. Zuckerberg said that Facebook has been focused on making its services useful for those who use them but at the expense of younger users.

The multi-year effort will, Zuckerberg said, likely result in slower growth among older users. In terms of the near future, users can expect "significant changes" to Reels and an overall push toward video, which has proven massively popular among teenagers.