For 12 years now Facebook has radically changed our lives by allowing us to chat with friends near and far and to share photos of our latest family vacation. According to some, those days are over.

Today, Facebook is more like a giant store where brands are fighting for our attention.

The nature of the world's leading media has changed so much that it probably won't be able to wear the social network label soon.

Source: @bigstock

The number that worries Facebook

Bloomberg has indeed reported that personal data sharing on Facebook has fallen 21% since mid-2015. The decisions made lately by Facebook indicate that the problem is being taken very seriously at Menlo Park. 

For some time now, everyone will have noticed on their news feed reminders of images from years past with injunctions to share with their network.

These tactics have been more or less successful, so much so that images from "That Day" can provoke strong emotions.

Facebook also now encourages its users to share the latest photos taken with their phones. 

In addition, the company recently launched its Facebook Live (streaming video), which provides brands with maximum exposure through notifications and, in the process, encourages individuals to share such content more regularly.

Why is Facebook going to such lengths to encourage the sharing of personal information when it was so natural just a few years ago?

Is the fact that everyone is now on Facebook, from his grandmother to his boss, playing a role in this decline? 

Or is it rather because the average user is intimidated by the big money of brands that will inevitably publish better-looking photos and attract more likes than him/her? 

New uses and new social networks

Before the arrival of social networks, the professional, personal, family or friendship (even sentimental) life tended to be well separated.

Facebook has brought all these public and private spheres together in one place. So anonymity gradually disappeared.

Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg has long championed the idea that thanks to Facebook, we would leave behind our multiple identities (at work, in relationships, in families, etc.) to have only one 

But the sharp decline in personal content shared on Facebook, as well as the rise of chat social networks like Snapchat prove it wrong. 

Today, Facebook is no longer the place to share with close friends and family. It's the place to find and share interesting content. This trend will become even more pronounced with the upcoming launch of Instant Articles. 

Thanks to its analysis of the personal data and behavior of each of its users, Facebook will still be able to attract us with content calibrated to our desires.

It will thus keep its central place within your Content Marketing strategy. But for how long?