• by Gavin O'Malley , Staff Writer @mp_gavin, April 8, 2016

That is, users are posting a ton, but mostly news stories and viral videos rather than personal content. The latter is critical to Facebook’s health because it engenders far higher engagement levels, and strengthens bonds among users.  

That’s why news that original sharing of personal stories dropped 21%, last year, is so troubling for Facebook.

It also explains why the social giant is so eager to reposition itself as a live-video platform.

Facebook only began testing live video-streaming late last year. Now, it’s planning to prominently place a live video tab right in its Messenger app in a matter of weeks. (When all is said and done, that should come out to around 900 million new tabs -- but who’s counting?)

The company is also rolling out a number of new video-based features, including Video for Groups and Events, with which users can more easily share live video with particular friends and family.

These features are critical because, as Facebook sees it, the size of users’ social networks is largely responsible for the steep decline in personal sharing. In other words, peoples’ networks have become so big that they no longer feel comfortable sharing personal information. Facebook engineers call this decline in closeness “context collapse," as sources tell Bloomberg.

Live video isn’t Facebook’s only solution to its sharing problem, obviously.

Among other efforts, it just bought Masquerade, a simple mobile app that allows for playful augmentations to selfies and video content. Some of its more popular tricks include mashing selfies with those of various celebrities, and face swapping -- which is when one face is swapped for another.

Late last year, Facebook began testing a feature that automatically identifies users’ “friends” in freshly taken photos -- before they’ve been uploaded to the social network -- and then encourages users to share those snaps.  

Of course, Facebook is also investing a ton of energy and resources into virtual reality, which executives believe will fundamentally change the way people connect and share experiences.

At least in the short term, however, it looks as if Facebook will continue to struggle with user sharing.

According to recent findings from GlobalWebIndex, the social platform's users are sharing less content than ever. Over the past year, the share of Facebook users updating their status is down from 50% to 34%, while the share of those posting pictures is off from 59% to 37%, the market research firm found.