Social media sites come and go, they're often treated like fads, with users fighting over which social media is the best. Now Facebook has begun to grow out of style with younger teens, and many claim that there social media of choice (Instagram, Tumblr, etc) is the now the best social media. While it's natural for interests to shift as new products are created, I think it's important to note that not all social medias serve the same purpose. And while Facebook may be pretty old in social media terms, it's still the only service that fulfills certain needs.
"Social" is not all inclusive
While we use the term 'social media' as a blanket term for services online that allow users to connect to other users, not all social medias fulfill the same needs. Therefore, it's impossible to say which social media is the best since they all provide very different services.
Facebook is the only social media that allows totally direct connection between other people. You can see your friends lives unfold and talk to them about it in real time or look at individual pages. You can even use Facebook to do group projects, promote a business, and create events. This is about as social as any media can get. Google+ attempted to meet a lot of these same needs, but they also managed to take away a lot of the personal aspects, like not being able differentiate between things you follow and your friends.
On the other hand, things like Tumblr, Instagram, and Pinterest are very visual and put more emphasis on content rather than the users. Thus, it's a lot more difficult to directly connect to any users. For instance, Tumblr has a messaging system, but it's only meant to function as a system for answering specific questions, not maintaining a conversation. While it's true that Facebook isn't as entertaining as content-driven sites, this was never the purpose of Facebook. No other website is made to easily connect with friends, family, and co-workers.
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