The State of FacebookPart of program: “Facebook Fatigue: Fact or Fiction”

Lee Rainie, DirectorPew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project

National Asset ManagementMarch 14, 2013

Email: Lrainie@pewinternet.orgTwitter: @Lrainie

Basics from December 2012 phone surveyhttp://pewinternet.org/Reports/2013/Coming-and-going-on-facebook.aspx

• 85% of American adults use internet• 67% of online Americans use Facebook (57% of

all adults)

Facebook UserDemographics

Coming and Going on Facebook• Facebook fasting: 61% of current Facebook users say

that at one time or another in the past they have voluntarily taken a break from using Facebook for a period of several weeks or more.

• Facebook dropouts: 20% of the online adults who do not currently use Facebook say they once used the site but no longer do so.

• Future Facebook users: 8% of online adults who do not currently use Facebook are interested in becoming Facebook users in the future.

Reasons for Facebook Breaks• 61% of Facebook users have voluntarily taken a multi-week break from the

site in the past. Here’s why:

More frequent use % of SNS users (more than just Facebook) who say they use the sites several times a day

Aug-11 Feb-12 Dec-120%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

33% 35%41%

How important is Facebook to you?

• 59% of Facebook users say the social networking site is about as important to them as it was a year ago. 53% say the amount of time they spend on Facebook is about the same as last year.

• 28% of Facebook users say the site has been less important to them than it was a year ago. 34% of users say the amount of time they spend on Facebook has decreased over the past year.

• 12% of Facebook users say the site has become more important to them than it was a year ago. 13% of users say the amount of time they spend on Facebook has increased over the past year.

3% of Facebook users say they plan to spend more time on the site.

27% say they plan to spend less time on the site.

69% plan to spend the same amount of time on the site.

Young people are the most likely to say their time spent on Facebook will decrease.

Plans for this year on Facebook

Thank you!

Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project Omnibus Survey, December 13-16, 2012. N=1,006 adults. Interviews conducted by landline and cell phone in English. The margin of error

is +/- 3.6 percentage points for the complete set of weighted data.Corresponding report:

“Coming and Going on Facebook” http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2013/Coming-and-going-on-facebook.aspx

General reference page for Pew Internet’s work related to social mediahttp://pewinternet.org/Commentary/2012/March/Pew-Internet-Social-Networking-full-detail.aspx

Sources

Where we live: Pew Internet

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