Executive says Facebook will be all video, no text in 5 years

Video must be doing well on Facebook, because an executive at the company just predicted that's all Facebook will be in five years.

Nicola Mendelsohn, Facebook's vice president of European, Middle Eastern and African operations, said at a conference Tuesday that in five years, Facebook "will be probably all video," Quartz reported. Mendelsohn added that video is "the best way to tell stories in this world" and "helps us to digest much more information."

Mendelsohn is predicting the obsolescence of the written word, at least on Facebook, according to Quartz.

Mendelsohn is predicting the obsolescence of the written word, at least on Facebook

That sounds far-fetched, but consider the way Facebook is decreasing an emphasis on text and diving headfirst into video with numerous recent updates and features.

Facebook Live has exploded in popularity since it became open to the public this year. Numerous attention-grabbing videos have gone up on Facebook Live, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg's recent conversation with astronauts on the International Space Station.

As GIFs, photos and moving images have become increasingly popular replacements for text reactions, Facebook has responded by allowing users to post videos as comments on the social network. 

Facebook is also one of the first places on the web to host 360-degree videos and photos, and the inclusion of virtual reality media will open up new, non-text-based ways to share your life and news with friends and followers.

Just because video is growing in popularity and expanding on Facebook doesn't mean the social network will remove ways to type. And some people will always prefer written words to moving pictures and sounds.

Still, Mendelsohn said video-based communications will only continue to grow and become more commonplace, adding, "We're seeing a year-on-year decline of text."

BONUS: How to Facebook Live like a pro

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