Is Facebook's 'Culture Of Sharing' Drying Up?

From the very beginning, Mark Zuckerberg's vision for Facebook Inc FB centered around a community of sharing.

However, that culture of openness is beginning to disappear, reports from The Information and Bloomberg reveal.

Personal Sharing Is Down

While user activity remains stable, and overall shares may not be lower, the intimacy behind the shares is diminishing. TechInsider's Alex Heath explained, "That doesn't mean overall sharing on Facebook is down, but it does indicate that the more than 1 billion people on Facebook are starting to use it differently – namely for sharing videos and web links."

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By replacing personal shares – such as unique photos, notes and other personal information – with more impersonal shares, the culture behind the social media phenomenon has begun to shift. Interestingly, Heath noted, this change coincides with the rise of one-on-one communication features like Snapchat and WhatsApp.

According to The Information, "original broadcast sharing" via Facebook is down 15 percent from the year ago period. Additionally, "only 39 percent of weekly active users posted original content in a given week."

What Facebook Is Doing To Combat The Culture Shift

Bloomberg noted Facebook is calling this change in user behavior a "context collapse." "Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg has spoken at Facebook staff meetings this year about the need to inspire personal sharing," Bloomberg explained, highlighting the "On This Day" feature and prompts attempt to increase personal user engagement.

TechInsider also mentioned an algorithmic change to Facebook's News Feed, which attempts to do something similar by prioritizing shares.

TechInsider quoted a Facebook spokesperson as saying, "People continue to share a ton of Facebook […] The overall level of sharing has remained not only strong, but similar to levels in prior years."