Remember those days when your friends would tell you, on Facebook, what they were eating for lunch or when they were taking a shower or doing other personal things?

Reportedly, that type of sharing "personal and original" activity is on the decline at Facebook.

Bloomberg writes that the company has detected a significant shift in people's behavior with regards to sharing personal-activity (a 21 percent decline year over year as of mid-2015) and original posting which is apparently the core of the company's product. Instead, people sharing interesting news and links from other websites have increased prompting Facebook to respond. While these kinds of posts can create new conversation, they also push people to other websites. This is where Facebook faces its biggest challenge.

The report also notes that Facebook is actively looking to combat this behavior reportedly dubbed "content collapse" by Facebook staff.

Reasons for Context Collapse

So why might this be happening?

With the growth of "dark social" apps as well as other social media apps that are focused solely on small tasks, people are gravitating toward other platforms such as Instagram and Snapchat to highlight more personal perspectives.

Facebook's content sharing is far more expansive and for many far less straightforward than quickly uploading a picture to either Snapchat or Instagram for example. Throw in the fact that the younger users are gravitating toward these networks and there is also the growth of a generational divide in many cases.

Then there is the whole issue of Facebook being far more accessible to potential employers. People have taken to Facebook to report news and opinions, but are less likely to reveal their own day to day activity for fear that any misstep on the social network could cause employment issues for them in the future. It is a world where any piece of information you post can alter people's perception of your character, something that people are simply less keen to do.

And despite these issues, Facebook still remains the social media app that people are spending most of their precious time on, according to Business Insider.

Context Collapse May Be a Blessing in Disguise

So how is this a blessing for Facebook?

The reality is that this forces Facebook to rethink their strategy and even adjust to how people are utilizing it as a social network.

Facebook has already been coming up with a number of different ways to get people more involved with personal posting such as the "On this Day" feature that lets people repost past experiences that they experienced as a reminder to their friends and family.

Facebook has also enabled easier video and photo uploading on its apps. What it has yet to offer are contests with prizes to entice people to showcase more personal posts.

Will create a massive restructuring for the company? That is highly unlikely unless Facebook aims to alienate its user base. However it is likely that Facebook users will be bombarded with more invitations to provide personal posts such as the posting of home videos or photographs.

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