IMO it's the appeal of having an audience. Get followers, get recognition for your thoughts - get recognition for yourself.
I really think the reason Facebook first exploded in popularity (I was just entering college when it rolled out so have some first-hand experience) was because a whole lot of college age people love to show off pictures of themselves doing cool things, they want the audience. I won't comment on how Facebook has changed, but the original appeal was close to why Instagram is so popular today.
It feels good to have an audience, whether it's for your thoughts or pictures of your life. Not here to judge that as good or bad.
I don't know if it's just me, but these days instead of seeing inane photos of my friends, all I see are photo's my friends liked (especially if they have 1.5k other likes).
I don't "like" anything on fb so it's not just fb deciding for me what I want to see. I think that it's moving closer and closer to curated TV than a true social network
I really think the reason Facebook first exploded in popularity (I was just entering college when it rolled out so have some first-hand experience) was because a whole lot of college age people love to show off pictures of themselves doing cool things, they want the audience. I won't comment on how Facebook has changed, but the original appeal was close to why Instagram is so popular today.
It feels good to have an audience, whether it's for your thoughts or pictures of your life. Not here to judge that as good or bad.