Study Claims A Quarter of Facebook Users Uninstalled the App

AlphaAtlas

AlphaAtlas

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The Pew Research Center recently published a study on Facebook users, and it contains some interesting results. According to the study, which was conducted in May and June of 2018, over a quarter of Facebook users deleted the app from their phones in the past year. 42% say they've taken a break from checking Facebook for several weeks, and over half say they adjusted their privacy settings. The researchers also found that younger users reduced their Facebook activity more than older ones, on average.

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. Similarly, older users are much less likely to say they have adjusted their Facebook privacy settings in the past 12 months: Only a third of Facebook users 65 and older have done this, compared with 64% of younger users. In earlier research, Pew Research Center has found that a larger share of younger than older adults use Facebook. Still, similar shares of older and younger users have taken a break from Facebook for a period of several weeks or more.
 
Even though I rarely check Facebook I haven't uninstalled it in case I ever need to get a hold of someone. I definitely went through all the privacy settings and modified.
 
when you have an app listening to your every conversation and pulling up ads for things you are talking about wouldn't you be suspicious of where they got the information from?

why wouldn't you delete it?

privacy settings are useless.
 
I moved to just using my phones web browser a while ago and havent had any trouble. There's also the added convenience of being able to use desktop mode to view messages rather than having to install their messaging app.

That said my facebook is pretty limited to car groups and cat memes so I wouldn't consider myself a power user (if there is such a thing).
 
I had a Facebook account once.
I deleted it, and I've never regretted it.
Maybe because I have real friends.
 
Kardonxt said:
I moved to just using my phones web browser a while ago and havent had any trouble. There's also the added convenience of being able to use desktop mode to view messages rather than having to install their messaging app.

That said my facebook is pretty limited to car groups and cat memes so I wouldn't consider myself a power user (if there is such a thing).
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I just use mbasic. facebook.com, easier to use than the desktop site on mobile, and no auto loading videos.
 
The mobile browser version seems good enough and use FB Messenger if you need to contact anyone. I'm not a heavy FB user so that makes sense why it works for me. As for the younger generation it seems they're using competition since FB is for old people now. :)
 
I have done the same this year. Though they still got me on the hook with Messenger which I don't know how to feel about.
 
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On a personal note, I disabled Facebook on my phone over a year ago. It was burning though my battery in the background like crazy, and I never even logged into the app.
 
Sadly, as a car guy, this is the only reason I still have FB. Almost all groups and meets have moved to using FB event pages etc, if you don't have FB you miss out on just about every meet going on. I will say I don't have the app on my phone, but still have a FB account.
 
Another user here who has abandoned FB. As for the peeps who can only be reached thru FB, I will miss them.
 
AlphaAtlas said:
On a personal note, I disabled Facebook on my phone over a year ago. It was burning though my battery in the background like crazy, and I never even logged into the app.
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This. The FB Messenger app also is a killer on the battery.
 
pcgeekesq said:
I had a Facebook account once.
I deleted it, and I've never regretted it.
Maybe because I have real friends.
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I have a fake burner account to sign up for software downloads or quick forum posts,etc. etc...I don't even log into it except for those uses. Otherwise it's all wasted dribble of useless personal shit.
 
Never used Facebook, never used the app, but I did uninstall the app from my phone to save space.
 
VoloxitySF said:
This. The FB Messenger app also is a killer on the battery.
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Yeah. And they're both baked into the OS on my phone, so I can't uninstall them. If I disable FB Messenger, the FB app reactivates it and vice versa, so I had quickly disable both apps at the same time to get them to stop running. :(
 
AlphaAtlas said:
Yeah. And they're both baked into the OS on my phone, so I can't uninstall them. If I disable FB Messenger, the FB app reactivates it and vice versa, so I had quickly disable both apps at the same time to get them to stop running. :(
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That's insane, and IMO shouldn't be legal. I recently rooted my old LG G3 to try to get it to work on different carriers, and was able to blast away all the baked in Verizon apps that way. However, I'm not entirely convinced that I didn't create a monster. Soon I'm going to set up an insolated test network and see if I can capture any weird china-esque communications before I do anything of importance with it.
 
I predicted facebook would go the way of the dodo bird years ago. I was wrong, but I still don't see it lasting. Coming generations don't seem to care about facebook, and it is constantly being criticized for privacy issues.
 
I said this before long ago. The moment that mom and dad join is the moment that it's no longer cool.

I still have my stupid account - I don't do any real interaction on it other than laugh at other people that post.

I uninstalled the app looong ago. There is now an app called "Tinfoil for Facebook" that isn't 99999mb full of code that monitors everything you do on your phone. It simply opens up the website on a browser.
 
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My dad is an old coot of 78 and sometimes it is the only way I can get intouch with him. He is member of countless goat, tractor, farming pages and always chatting with his peeps. I mostly use it to upload our church video links from u tube. I originaly installed it to track my daughter but she has not even used it in years and now is 22 so she is on her own.
 
Got rid of all FB apps a year or so ago and use my PC and web browser only. Being I'm on the older end of the age spectrum most of the people in my friends list bitch and complain about politics. I hate politics and it's in our faces everyday. All I want from FB are dog videos that's it, wish there was a dog bell.
 
Social media,,,,,, never done that, never will.

Dont take this personally as you guys are probably on there, but in my world just using the word friend about some avatar & name on the web that liked the picture you posted of a cuppcake, well that alone are enough to get me steaming.
I will make do with the 1 friend i have, and including family the 7 - 8 people i feel like acting like a friend towards, all the others IRL or on the interweb well they cant really be anything but acquaintances.

Okay with the popularity of those damn things i am missing out on some things, but none of those things are anything i cant do without if need be, and if a person / or business solely use social media for contact, well then thats a big red flag in my world.

My friend and family can reach me on the phone 24/7, and they are the only ones that have my unlisted number, or should i say the number for the devise i carry thats not really mine.
 
Haven't used Farcebook in over two years now. No regerts.
 
F.E.A.R. said:
Even though I rarely check Facebook I haven't uninstalled it in case I ever need to get a hold of someone. I definitely went through all the privacy settings and modified.
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Just login to the website. The app is garbage. Really Facebook itself is anyway.
 
pcgeekesq said:
I had a Facebook account once.
I deleted it, and I've never regretted it.
Maybe because I have real friends.
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Many of us 30 - 45 year olds using Facebook do so because we all got careers and moved around the world. it's an easy way to stay in contact and keep updated without 500 msg text chains. With real friends. But u know, i guess not all of us had "real" friends before the interweb...

That said I still only use it seldomly and everytime they are tweaking their privacy settings without notification which is extremely annoying. And i immediately disabled the preinstalled app on my phone so no opinion on that.
 
Ever since they broke the Messenger app out of the main Facebook app there really hasn't been much need for the main Facebook app.
At this point I pretty much only use Facebook to post funny or interesting pictures to friends. Even then, most of us have switched to Discord at this point...
 
I uninstalled it because they were constantly trying to get my attention. I would get multiple notifications a day for BS stuff like "We noticed you haven't used facebook in a while" or "Someone is posting things on facebook why don't you take a look." They also had a "bug" that for years you would get re-notified about something you already read. "You have a new message!" I check the message. Ten minutes later "You have a new message", I check and it's the same one. I am overseas and it's tricky staying in touch with people so I don't delete my account, but it's no longer on my phone.

edit -
I have an app called metal that I use to check for messenger messages. It's basically just a skin for the regular desktop site but it doesn't have any notifications at all.
 
My wife and I long since removed the app, messenger app, and disabled our accounts. Has been that way for years and we couldnt be happier. The people that are important in your life will have your phone number or email and can text, call, or email you. If you dont have that persons phone number, you may want to reconsider how "crucial" you might think it is to constantly access an app every day to see what they're doing. Just because we CAN connect with thousands of people and constantly stay up with their every move through an app on your phone doesn't mean we should.
 
FlawleZ said:
My wife and I long since removed the app, messenger app, and disabled our accounts. Has been that way for years and we couldnt be happier. The people that are important in your life will have your phone number or email and can text, call, or email you. If you dont have that persons phone number, you may want to reconsider how "crucial" you might think it is to constantly access an app every day to see what they're doing. Just because we CAN connect with thousands of people and constantly stay up with their every move through an app on your phone doesn't mean we should.
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I agree. Facebook knows the psychology behind their users. The constant urge to open the app and see what has been posted. This is what propagates facebook in general. In reality, it's probably unhealthy and causing obsessive type behavior in people. I appreciate seeing old friends from the past and seeing how their lives evolve, but as you mention, it's not crucial.
 
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