Eldest son (17) and all his mates use it - very rarely do they post publicly, it's purely for messaging. I've never been sure why, there's plenty enough alternatives, but that's how it is for him and his cohort.
It’s used heavily in dating these days. We use instagram as a messenger because that’s what everyone has and it’s socially easier to ask a new person for the instagram rather than their phone number.
Its predictable and not entirely private like a close friend group chat on iMessage or WhatsApp. Plus of course the way it integrates with feeds of photo/videos you’re already looking at casually.
If data plans weren't tied to them, Gen Z probably wouldn't have phone numbers at all anymore. (Well, at least in those parts of the world where a data reception no slower than 3G is ubiquitous.)
If you think about it, the whole concept really does stick out nowadays. The idea of this unique, static (or at least not easily changeable), non-descript identifier tied only to you and your physical device is very much a product of its time.
Phone numbers only continue to exist by momentum – if a similar thing were to be implemented today, it would never catch on so universally.
Not OP, but going by pesonal experience way back in days of original facebook days a lot of people never posted that much and mainly consumed as soon as it was possible.
Even before that on forums etc. there were many more lurkers than posters.
17 year old me didn't wanted to be compared to all the others "perfect" lives.
Maybe I'm naive but I bet that hasn't fundamentally changed.
Its predictable and not entirely private like a close friend group chat on iMessage or WhatsApp. Plus of course the way it integrates with feeds of photo/videos you’re already looking at casually.
The same way FB used to be.