"Maybe I don't fit the demographic, but I don't want [task-orientation] to become second-class citizens over friend communications."
You're not their demographic. Phones are still a primarily social technology for most people. The most popular features, voice calls, text messaging, and possibly email, revolve around people.
P.S. I know several people who friend news sources and bloggers and use Fb as an ersatz RSS feed, mitigating the death-by-cat-pictures eventuality.
The target segment is quite evident from the splash page that says, and yes this is my serious face, "Get right to Facebook, Instagram and other essentials".
I think you're confusing social interactions and socializing, which are quite different in intent. While socializing requires social interaction, it's not the other way around, and social media feeds off of socializing.
Perhaps I'm not in the demographic either, since a majority of my call and email usage is not based in any form of socializing. Texting, somewhat more, but I do little texting, and when I do it's usually just for logistical purposes -- "meet you at 6pm at FooBar" -- which also isn't socializing.
You're not their demographic. Phones are still a primarily social technology for most people. The most popular features, voice calls, text messaging, and possibly email, revolve around people.
P.S. I know several people who friend news sources and bloggers and use Fb as an ersatz RSS feed, mitigating the death-by-cat-pictures eventuality.