This conversation comes up regularly. Teenage daughter of a coworker says Facebook is for old people (meaning "adults.") She uses Snapchat mainly. There are many other social media options for them, so Facebook in its usual form isn't THE thing. Anybody remember MySpace? It was THE thing, until Facebook killed it. Something else will come along, and Facebook will probably fade away, too. I've been around computers long enough to remember chatting via dial-up BBS systems, when email wasn't much of a thing yet. (Didn't Tug start as a BBS system?) ICQ and mIRC were huge in their day, but newer things came along, and they faded into the background.
Part of the problem with any social media is the risk of "siloing." If you have a specific set of interests, beliefs, or whatever, you will naturally tend to "friend" and "follow" others who have similar interests, beliefs, and whatever. Over time, you are surrounded by like-minded people, and everyone is rallying around whatever that interest or belief might be. You end up in a silo of information that doesn't often consider a different point of view. It becomes a case of "Us vs. Them" and can be very limiting. As people in that silo send posts around, sharing links to like-minded topics, eventually it becomes a narrow, self-serving place to spend your time. When you put deliberate trolls into that silo, whose purpose is to foster that certain interest or belief, or create dissent, it compounds the issue, because everyone will rally around that troll's posts, adding fuel to the fire.
A lot of the misinformation being passed around (political or otherwise) happens when someone posts a like, or a picture, or a video, and "everyone" in that silo passes it around to everyone else. Eventually, it "must" be true, because "everyone" says it is. Narrow thinking about anything can be a dangerous thing to blindly accept. (Tug haters might accuse us of the same narrow thinking. Hence the posts of "Is it ever smart to buy from a Developer?"
Just as travel is the death of ignorance, (as Mark Twain once wisely said), I think researching anything as widely as possible will give diverse perspectives, and prevent fostering of a narrow point of view. The Facebook users who have the best perspectives are those who do their own research on the topic at hand.
Having said that, I've used Facebook daily for probably ten years or more. (When did it start? I was an early adopter.) I have a very narrow list of Friends, comprised of certain family members, nearby social friends I see regularly, a few long-time friends who live far away, and a few coworkers. I am not Friends with anyone I do not know personally. After all these years, my Friends list is still less than 100 people. The point is to stay in touch, not to prove any specific agenda. For me, Facebook is strictly for fun - like a party. I post amusing pictures and videos I think others will also find amusing, pictures of my travels and pets, and the occasional recipe for some food item that sounds especially good. I absolutely DO NOT post negative things on my Facebook page, because I am not interested in dragging down my mood, or the mood of anyone who happens to read it. I deal with enough negative stuff in my regular daily life, I don't need to do it in my recreational time, too. (That's why I like Tug so much - you people are crazy, but I like crazy. LOL!)
Dave
