“Significant shares of Facebook users have taken steps in the past year to reframe their relationship with the social media platform,” Andrew Perrin reports for the Pew Research Center. “Just over half of Facebook users ages 18 and older (54%) say they have adjusted their privacy settings in the past 12 months, according to a new Pew Research Center survey. Around four-in-ten (42%) say they have taken a break from checking the platform for a period of several weeks or more, while around a quarter (26%) say they have deleted the Facebook app from their cellphone. All told, some 74% of Facebook users say they have taken at least one of these three actions in the past year.”
“The findings come from a survey of U.S. adults conducted May 29-June 11, following revelations that the former consulting firm Cambridge Analytica had collected data on tens of millions of Facebook users without their knowledge,” Perrin reports. “Facebook has separately faced scrutiny from conservative lawmakers and pundits over allegations that it suppresses conservative voices. The Center found that the vast majority of Republicans think that social platforms in general censor political speech they find objectionable. Despite these concerns, the poll found that nearly identical shares of Democrats and Republicans (including political independents who lean toward either party) use Facebook. Republicans are no more likely than Democrats to have taken a break from Facebook or deleted the app from their phone in the past year.”
“There are, however, age differences in the share of Facebook users who have recently taken some of these actions. Most notably, 44% of younger users (those ages 18 to 29) say they have deleted the Facebook app from their phone in the past year, nearly four times the share of users ages 65 and older (12%) who have done so,” Perrin reports. “Still, similar shares of older and younger users have taken a break from Facebook for a period of several weeks or more.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: We certainly hope we’ve done our small part to contribute to those Facebook deletion numbers.
As we’ve written previously, “If you trust Mark Zuckerberg to be the keeper of your photos, contacts, political views, religious beliefs, etc., you’re batshit insane.”
Instant messages sent by Mark Zuckerberg during Facebook’s early days, reported by Business Insider, May 13, 2010:
Zuckerberg: Yeah so if you ever need info about anyone at Harvard
Zuckerberg: Just ask
Zuckerberg: I have over 4,000 emails, pictures, addresses, SNS
[Redacted Friend’s Name]: What? How’d you manage that one?
Zuckerberg: People just submitted it.
Zuckerberg: I don’t know why.
Zuckerberg: They “trust me”
Zuckerberg: Dumb fucks—
We use FaceBook as an RSS feed. Our CMS automatically reposts our article headlines and links them back to our website. That is our only interaction with Facebook and has been our only interaction with Facebook for years. We deleted our personal accounts [which we opened only so we could understand the Facebook phenomenon] many years ago.
If you want to share photos and videos with friends, text them using Apple’s end-to-end encrypted iMessage service. You need to control your social networking, not cede it to a gatekeeper like Facebook. – MacDailyNews, March 19, 2018
SEE ALSO:
Mark Zuckerberg loses $16 billion in record Facebook fall – July 26, 2018
Facebook stock plunges as users vanish – July 25, 2018
Apple highlights user privacy as Facebook exec steps down – June 14, 2018
The 18 things you may not realize Facebook knows about you: Firm reveals the extent of its spying in a 454-page document to U.S. Congress – June 12, 2018
Facebook confirms sharing users’ personal data with Chinese companies – June 6, 2018
Apple’s macOS Mojave removes integration with third-party internet accounts like Facebook – June 6, 2018
Apple borks Facebook’s pervasive personal data-harvesting operation – June 5, 2018
Apple requested ‘zero’ personal data in deals with Facebook – CEO Tim Cook – June 5, 2018
Facebook CEO blasts Apple’s latest privacy protections as ‘cute virtue signaling’ – June 5, 2018
I have already made all the connections with old friends. I am now done with Facebook.
What does it mean for a company when your customers “take a break” from your product? Is that a sustainable reputation to uphold?
I deleted my FB account 6 months ago. I only use twitter for Apple support. I opened an instagram account to follow my daughter’s bookstagrams.
Isn’t Instagram just another name for the stupidbook? Doesn’t Facebook also on Instagram ehhhh never!
I deleted my account a year ago and I couldn’t be happier. I even have more time for REAL FRIENDS and movies and much more.
I look forward to when Facebook becomes like MySpace.
Agreed
I have not found a better way to keep in touch with members of the art community: Gallery directors, artists, art opening invitations, calls for art exhibits, art news, etc.
I was a very in frequent user of Facebook however years back I did use it to connect with old friends from when I did the normal talk to them on the phone I deleted my Facebook account with a while ago and could care less I think all social media it’s just utter BS and absolutely not needed.
Social media is the demise of this planet I’m convinced of it.
Facebook and social media should die, it’s done so much harm to this country.
Built on a great idea, I found my long lost aunt and uncle on Facebook, but it’s been turned into nothing more then a big propaganda machine and information harvesting machine.
The congregation of narcissists ….
glad to see people wake up and walk away from this social and cultural poison.
I’m not using it much anymore. I’m just keeping it to have a form of contact with old friends: in case someone gets sick or dies.