Introduction Of Meta
As Meta faces scrutiny in its high-profile antitrust trial, newly disclosed internal documents from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) have pulled back the curtain on a long-running concern within the company: Facebook’s fading cultural relevance.
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Among the revelations are emails from 2022 in which top Meta executives—Mark Zuckerberg included—grappled with how to keep Facebook from becoming a digital relic. Despite solid engagement metrics in many markets, the underlying sentiment was clear: Facebook was losing its place in the cultural conversation. Meta
Zuckerberg’s 2022 Emails: A Crisis of Relevance
In emails from April 2022, Zuckerberg laid out a candid assessment of Facebook’s direction, particularly its foundational “Friends” model, which he worried was becoming outdated. While platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter leaned into follow-based or algorithm-driven content delivery, Facebook remained rooted in a friending system that increasingly felt clunky and stale. Meta
“Even though the FB app’s engagement is steady in many places,” Zuckerberg wrote, “its cultural relevance is decreasing quickly, and I worry that this may be a leading indicator of future health issues.”
He went on to express concern that if Facebook faltered, Meta’s broader ecosystem could suffer—regardless of how well Instagram or WhatsApp performed.
Zuckerberg argued that Facebook needed a major shift—perhaps even a fundamental restructuring of its social graph.
“My theory is that we need to refresh the graph structure of FB in order for it to gain cultural relevance and a better long-term path,” he wrote.
Is Friending Outdated?
A major point of concern was Facebook’s reliance on friending—once a revolutionary concept, now seen by some in Silicon Valley as outmoded.
Zuckerberg pointed out that people’s Facebook friend networks had become “stale,” full of contacts they no longer cared to interact with. Meanwhile, requesting new friends felt “heavyweight,” particularly in contrast to the lightweight, passive nature of simply following someone.
“Most of the time when I meet someone or become interested in someone, I just want to follow them first—not ask anything of them,” he noted.
He suggested that Facebook’s identity was too tightly bound to its original model and lagged behind newer platforms that embraced alternative structures like follow-based networks, algorithmic content (à la TikTok), or community-driven spaces like Reddit and Groups.
Exploring Radical Fixes
In a moment of bold reflection, Zuckerberg even floated the idea of starting over completely.
“One potentially crazy idea is to consider wiping everyone’s graphs and having them start again,” he proposed.
While acknowledging the risks—users might not bother rebuilding their networks, for one—he believed that only dramatic changes could shift Facebook’s cultural momentum. Incremental fixes, he implied, would no longer cut it.
His messages also suggested scrapping likes on Pages and embracing following across both public and private accounts.
“Every other modern social network is built on following rather than friending,” he wrote. “It seems possible that the FB app is just outdated because it never adopted this fundamental innovation.”
2025: Still Searching for Relevance
Now in 2025, Meta is still chasing a fix. During the company’s Q4 earnings call in January, Zuckerberg announced a renewed focus on restoring Facebook’s cultural relevance, teasing a return to “OG Facebook.”
One key feature in this effort is a redesigned Friends tab, which aims to modernize the way users connect while preserving Facebook’s core identity.
But whether these tweaks will be enough to make Facebook feel fresh again—or whether a more radical overhaul is still on the table—remains to be seen.
