Facebook is a popular social media platform that hosts a variety of features, including Facebook Watch, Live, games, messages, and many more. You may have noticed that a friend or two whom you would talk to for hours a few years ago are barely active now or have completely disappeared. While there could be many reasons why this happens, Facebook itself cannot be blamed here. Or can they?
In this article, we will discuss why you might be losing a lot of friends on Facebook over time, which may have left you confused.
Also read: How to find saved reels on Facebook?
Facebook: A bygone era
Facebook has been on a steady decline as a social media app ever since new and more current and diverse Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, VSCO, TikTok, and BeReal have hit the world. Even though Facebook continues to contest these apps by either purchasing them or adding new features to its own platform, a lot of users prefer other apps. Maybe because of Facebook’s size combined with a separate messaging app called Messenger.
Additionally, it has also received low engagement in comparison to other social media platforms. Their user base has been in decline for quite some time. Facebook’s parent company called Meta Platforms’ profit has been on a decline as well due to growing inflation and ad-tracking restrictions implied by Apple to protect the privacy of their users.
As a result of this declining popularity and engagement, a chunk of FB users have flocked to different social networks, including Meta-owned Instagram, and have either deactivated or deleted their accounts.
Deactivation
You may have trouble finding them online if their account is deactivated. This action leads to the account being in temporary deletion mode and this means you will not be able to interact with their profile in any manner. Deactivation is temporary as long as your friend is logged out. When they log in, their account will be reactivated and then you can easily find them online and interact with their profile, including sending messages.
Deletion
If your friend has deleted their account then you will not be able to find any trace of them on Facebook. If suspect this action, you can always message them on another social media account to confirm. Deletion is a permanent solution and thus cannot be reversed.
Facebook banned/suspended your friend
Facebook has certain community guidelines that need to be adhered to and if your friend has violated these rules in any way then Facebook might ban them. These violations can range from hate speech, harassment, terrorism, bullying, and many other violent topics. If your friend was reported by several users due to their content being in violation of Facebook’s Community Standards. Confirm this with them and remember that the world is vile, and it finally got to them.
Your friend unfriended you
If you have not posted anything in a long time or have not spoken to your friend in a while, then they might remove you, assuming that your account is either deactivated or deserted. If you are close to them then you can always send a friend request back however, in case they do not accept your request, it might be due to the deactivation, deletion or suspension of their account.
Bugs (bunny)
There might be a bug on Facebook that might be interfering with your normal activities, including friend lists and unfriending your contacts in the process. In order to avoid this, you can try clearing the app’s cache as well as uninstalling and reinstalling the app. Once the bug or a system glitch has been cleared, none of the unfriended friends will be added back, so you will have to send friend requests out again individually.
Also read: What does Bump mean on Facebook Messenger?Â
