Americans Abandoning Facebook In Droves

[Hum]

The Facebook craze that gave us Farmville and notes from "friends" about their breakfast and just about everything else may finally be ending.

A new Pew Research Center poll finds that a huge group of users, 61 percent, are taking breaks from Facebook up to "several weeks" long, and that virtually all age groups are decreasing their time on the social media site that recently flopped in its initial public offering of publicly traded stock. Most devastating: 38 percent of users aged 18-29, the focus of advertisers on the site, plan to slash their time on Facebook this year.

The poll's findings that users are pulling back on their Facebook obsession flies in the face of the poll's other finding that Americans are spending more time on social network sites. It didn't indicate where internet users are going instead of Facebook. In Washington, many lawmakers are shifting their attention from Facebook posts to Twitter.

The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project poll, provided to Secrets, found that 67 percent of online adults are Facebook users, a sign of just how important the website is to American life.

But the poll also found that many users seem to be getting bored with the website started in 2004. Besides the 61 percent who report taking long breaks from it, 42 percent of those aged 18-29, 34 percent of those 30-49, and 23 percent of users 50 and over have decreased their time on Facebook over the last year.

When asked why users were abandoning Facebook, 21 percent said they have run out of time to check in with the site. Some 10 percent "pointed toward a general lack of interest in the site," an equal 10 percent said it lacked "compelling content," another 9 percent said it was too full of "drama" and "excessive gossip" from friends, and 8 percent worried that they were becoming addicts.

Worse for Facebook, one in five adults told Pew that they no longer use Facebook. And while 59 percent said the site famous for sharing thoughts and pictures remains "about as important to them as it was a year ago," 28 percent said it isn't as important.

Pew also asked users about their Facebook usage plans for this year. One in four said they are planning to "cut back" on their Facebook usage.

source

[Steven P. Administrators]

In other news it's also not cool to admit you're spending hours at a time on any social network or the crappy games on it :p

[Hum]

I abandoned Facebook since the beginning. :D

[Muhammad Farrukh]

People still use Facebook?

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

I liked shunning cool things way before it was cool.

People still use Facebook?

People still prefix damn rhetorical questions that serve no purpose with "people still"?

[Shaun N.]

I'm only on facebook now to troll other people's status updates

[techbeck]

Funny, all these apps/hardware integrating Facebook and when FB flops, it will at some point and time just like MySpace, you have a bunch of useless hardware/software features.

[McKay]

People still use Facebook?

You knew the answer to that before you even wrote that down.

[_neutrino Veteran]

I have been slowing down my posting on facebook and will hopefully by the end of the year not be using it anymore. I have been using it since it was schools only.

[Yusuf M. Veteran]

Funny, all these apps/hardware integrating Facebook and when FB flops, it will at some point and time just like MySpace, you have a bunch of useless hardware/software features.

I haven't read about hardware designed specifically for Facebook. As for Facebook being useless, it depends on the individual. Take a look at MySpace. There are people that used it since day one and despite its lack of popularity (compared to Facebook), it's still around.

My close friends and I don't use Facebook as often as we used to. I think it started near the end of 2010. We went back to plain old SMS/phone calls. I don't even use Twitter that often either and I don't have an Instagram account.

[f0rk_b0mb]

I have a facebook, but I posted maybe 3 times. It's stupid. You want to find out what I'm doing? Call me, email me, come over and hang out.

[Torolol]

hmm, the next fad would be cloud based VR hangout then, with google glass.

[Kondrath]

I haven't read about hardware designed specifically for Facebook.

https://www.neowin.net/news/htc-reported-to-be-building-a-facebook-phone-and-its-specs-have-leaked

There was also another HTC phone, the Status, that head a dedicated Facebook button.

[Jason S. Global Moderator]

deactivated my FB account last year. dont miss it one bit. i never used it.

my favorite are the people that think FB is the only form of communication these days. "oh, you didnt know about <event>? i put it up on FB..." how about you just email it instead? if you want me to come, call me...

[Belazor]

deactivated my FB account last year. dont miss it one bit. i never used it.

my favorite are the people that think FB is the only form of communication these days. "oh, you didnt know about <event>? i put it up on FB..." how about you just email it instead? if you want me to come, call me...

Are you saying that you're so special they should take extra measures to invite you separately from everyone else?

I'd agree with you if you were talking about yourself and 1 other mate that wanted to see a movie.

I'd borderline agree with you if you were talking about a group of 3-4 mates, but only if you're talking about something with a set schedule (i.e. Band X plays at Venue Y) and only if you also IM with the others.

Even then, you're still that guy that doesn't want to make things easier on everybody because... um... because you don't like it. Or something.

Tell me, what's easier:

a) Create a new event -> Invite everyone on friends list or everyone who's likely to be interested -> whoever wants to go RSVP's -> Fun

b) Individually call/text 25+ people to let them know something's about to go down

If you can think of a single logical reason why we should not leverage technology to make these kind of things easier then I'd like to hear it.

[Yusuf M. Veteran]

http://www.neowin.ne...ecs-have-leaked

There was also another HTC phone, the Status, that head a dedicated Facebook button.

Ah, I forgot about that. If Facebook were to become irrelevant, it would take a long time for that to happen. By then, any phones with a dedicated Facebook button would be obsolete. Of course, that's assuming not a lot of phones aren't made with that button in the near future.

deactivated my FB account last year. dont miss it one bit. i never used it.

my favorite are the people that think FB is the only form of communication these days. "oh, you didnt know about <event>? i put it up on FB..." how about you just email it instead? if you want me to come, call me...

I haven't deactivated mine but I don't use Facebook anymore for events. I still get invites to parties and whatnot but I almost always hear about the important ones before it's even put on Facebook. Also, a lot of people don't even bother to accept an invites (e.g. Maybe, Going, Not going) anymore. Night clubs have spammed people to the point where they disregard events even if they plan on going. In a way, I'm glad people are going back to the plain old ways of extending an invite.

[Jason S. Global Moderator]

Are you saying that you're so special they should take extra measures to invite you separately from everyone else?

I'd agree with you if you were talking about yourself and 1 other mate that wanted to see a movie.

I'd borderline agree with you if you were talking about a group of 3-4 mates, but only if you're talking about something with a set schedule (i.e. Band X plays at Venue Y) and only if you also IM with the others.

Even then, you're still that guy that doesn't want to make things easier on everybody because... um... because you don't like it. Or something.

Tell me, what's easier:

a) Create a new event -> Invite everyone on friends list or everyone who's likely to be interested -> whoever wants to go RSVP's -> Fun

b) Individually call/text 25+ people to let them know something's about to go down

If you can think of a single logical reason why we should not leverage technology to make these kind of things easier then I'd like to hear it.

or you could do what my mates do and just send a mass email... why do we need to have facebook for such things?

oh, and no, i'm not that special that i need a phone call. however, last year my buddy was in town for a couple days. i didnt even know b/c he posted it on FB. why couldnt he have just done a quick txt/email or call to let me know?

[LUTZIFER]

So what are people using then? I haven't noticed any droppage. If there's something else out there, do tell.

I don't actually do anything on Facebook, other than see what is going on with all the bands that I listen too. New CDs comin out, new vids, concerts comin up, etc. etc.

I use it as a tool to find everything I'm interested in, at one place. FB is great for that cuz it's what everyone is using. Musicians, companies, tech sites, etc. etc.

I definitely don't play games, in fact I got all that blocked out. And I use Skype for Facebook friend communication.

[threetonesun]

So what are people using then? I haven't noticed any droppage. If there's something else out there, do tell.

Twitter? You might be surprised, I think it's better for everything you listed. Google plus has much better tech news. LinkedIn is better for following companies.

facebook is just the poor man's version of all of those, plus a site some people confuse with Reddit.

[shockz]

I've noticed my usage drastically decrease the past year. Less of my close friends are on it, and the ads and such are getting a bit ridiculous. I really only keep it for chat and picture sharing now.

[Belazor]

or you could do what my mates do and just send a mass email... why do we need to have facebook for such things?

We don't need Facebook specifically, but it's currently the most used tool that can be used to organise events much easier than a mass email.

oh, and no, i'm not that special that i need a phone call. however, last year my buddy was in town for a couple days. i didnt even know b/c he posted it on FB. why couldnt he have just done a quick txt/email or call to let me know?

I agree with you on that.

[The_Observer]

starting to cut down, removed it from my phone, and only access it from my laptop.

[He's Dead Jim]

Oh! the drama...

[spenser.d]

I don't understand all the obsession with hating on it. People are using this convenient site to organize events and post statuses and pictures about their lives. The horror. :rolleyes:

Hating on FB is more of a fad than FB itself will ever be.

[Stoffel]

I'm not very active on FB, but I like it a lot as a way to keep in touch with all my customers, from all over the world, I get over the year.

I find it very easy to passively be in contact with all of them. Like a post, post a little comment,....

For me it's a lot easier then sending all of these people e-mails, just to let them know I remember them.