There was a time when Facebook was the place to catch up with friends, spot relationship updates, or hear about parties you weren’t invited to. Social media was built around real-life connections and personal updates. Fast forward to today, and those personal touches have largely disappeared. Instead, platforms like Facebook and Instagram are now flooded with celebrity promos, political debates, pop culture clips, and a growing flood of AI-generated content. The social side of social media has taken a back seat. Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, acknowledged this transformation while testifying during a major antitrust trial brought by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) last week. He described how Meta’s focus has shifted towards “entertainment and learning about the world” rather than fostering personal interactions. Internal data backs him up: the time users spend engaging with friends’ posts on Facebook has dropped from 22% to 17%, and on Instagram, from 11% to just 7% over the past two years. Meta’s Argument: Social Media Has Outgrown Old Definitions The FTC accuses Meta of illegally building a monopoly in the “personal social networking services” market by acquiring rising competitors like Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014. But defining that market has been
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