Facebook started in the college domain, where connecting to and sharing with everyone you met was ideal for any college student who wanted to stay in touch or know what was going on. But this model, which is basically still in use (though modified) is out of sync with the way people make and more importantly retain friends.

Facebook’s intelligent algorithms that sort your News Feed try to only show things relevant to you. The problem with the algorithm is that your News Feed is pretty bad at getting up to speed with changes in your personal life, usually showing you people that you were friends or acquaintances in the past.

Studies have shown that though social media allows us to be more connected than ever, our capacity for maintaining emotionally close relationships is finite. We retain friends on an one-in-one-out policy. If your “friend capacity” has been reached, you choose who to invest time in. Facebook has some functions that allow you to “unfriend,” “unfollow” or share with a select group of people, but it is not a natural and instinctive process, thus people are trending towards networks that are more personal.

To read more about how the days of “Facebook friends for life” are over, click here.

[ Source : TheVerge ]