Letters to The EDITOR: Is Facebook on the verge of death?

Facebook has been around for a long time now, about 18 years since it was first started. It has grown, showed changes, new features and even a new name last year, Meta. Facebook as a company has shown growth by including apps like WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram.

However, the company recently announced that Facebook has been losing its daily users. The news that Facebook's dominance over online socializing apps may have peaked in 2021 was just one of many symbolic data regarding a bleak corporate earnings report that sent Meta's stock into an epic, historic spiral, slashing $220 billion from its value and implying that the company's reign over online socializing may not last long. With two billion log-ins daily, Facebook is still in the race. However, for years now, the use of the Facebook app has been gradually declining. Facebook in its history of 18 years is seeing a fall in its daily users, half a million users stopped using it towards the end of 2021. Most of the falls were witnessed from Africa, Latin America and India.

Facebook has been showing slow growth around the world for a while now. Also, the focus of users has shifted to Instagram and WhatsApp. Social media apps like Instagram and WhatsApp are more liked and used by many people. There are some people who use these apps but have no Facebook accounts. Also, there are some people who used to be active on Facebook but now, have either deactivated or deleted their accounts.

However, for the investors in the company, the more worrying part is a privacy crackdown by Apple that has curtailed Facebook's ability to target ads on iPhones; and increasing spending in the company's dramatic quest to develop a virtual reality future it calls "the metaverse."

Even after introducing Instagram Reels, a form of short videos, Facebook could not take over TikTok, a Chinese app primarily dedicated to making short videos. According to a report by Good Trust, Facebook has 30 million dead people. So that means there are 30 million inactive users which also becomes a reason for the decline of Facebook. Also, it is important to notice that many people simply do not know how to use Facebook. Some people also left the app because of "privacy concerns." Other reasons for the decline can be slow growth in numbers, low revenue, and failure in generating money from Reels.

Violina Huzuri,

Guwahati.

Re-emergence of monkeypox

The entire world is still struggling with Covid-19 when another virus called monkeypox has set alarm bells ringing for all countries. Monkeypox is a skin disease that can spread through respiratory droplets and skin contact. It is, however, not new. The first case of monkeypox was reported in the year 1970. However, its re-emergence is a matter of concern, especially in a world where Covid-19 still continues to keep countries on a high alert. Monkeypox can be spread by direct physical contact with an infected person through bodily fluids, sexual contact, secretions from wounds and sores or by sharing clothing used by an infected person, prolonged contact with an infected person, or large droplets from the respiratory tract of that person. Typically, monkeypox infections start with flu-like symptoms, including the following: fever, headache, muscle aches, fatigue and swollen lymph nodes. This swelling of lymph nodes may appear in multiple locations such as the neck and the armpit.

Jubel D'Cruz,

Mumbai.

Badru Banerjee deserves more

Former captain of the Indian football team Samar 'Badru' Banerjee, who led the country to a historic fourth-place finish in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, is no more. We should have a football stadium or football league named after him. That's the only gratitude we can show for his contribution. The reason is that Indian football teams have participated in three Olympics so far and till date, the Badru Banerjee-led 1956 side remains the best performer by finishing fourth after losing to Bulgaria 0-3 in the bronze medal play-off, in what was known as the 'golden era' of football in the country. No football lover of the nation can forget the famous victory by 4-2 goals against the Aussies in that Olympics.

Vijaykumar HK,

Raichur.