THE WORLD IS SICK OF FACEBOOK

Chances are you’re spending 24% less time on Facebook
[Photo: PDPics/Pixabay]

It was less than a month ago that I wrote about a trend that should be very worrying for Facebook. Namely, that users were spending less time on the platform. According to Nielsen numbers through November of last year, interpreted by Pivotal, the social network lost about 4% in aggregated time spent.

Now new numbers have been released that go through December, and the problem only seems to be getting worse. The updated data shows that Facebook’s core platform lost 18% in time spent, which is a huge change from the month before. This, says Pivotal, reflects a 24% decline in time spent per person.” Instagram, too, saw some poor engagement numbers. Though aggregated consumption went up, the user base went up at a higher clip, meaning that time per person went down 9%.

Overall, this shows a mounting problem for Facebook: People are just engaging less with it. Algorithm changes may have something to do with it, and Zuckerberg even told shareholders to expect such a change. But these numbers could also indicate that people are becoming more fatigued by the platform.

If this trend continues, we may be seeing a shift in the Facebook-Google duopoly. The question is: Who will take Facebook’s place?CGW

BUSINESS

Millennials are starting to hate social media, too

March 7, 2018 | 4:55pm

Even millennials are getting sick of Instagram.

More than half of users between the ages of 18 and 24 revealed they are “seeking relief from social media,” according to a survey.

The poll, taken in December, found that 34 percent of young users reported having deleted social-media accounts entirely. Forty-one percent of respondents said they waste too much time on social media, and 35 percent agreed that people their age are too distracted by their online lives.

The most popular apps to quit permanently are Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, as well as the dating app Tinder. Snapchat, on the other hand, escaped most teens’ wrath.

Those who stick with social media are increasingly likely to involve it in more aspects of their lives, the survey found. Sixty-five percent of respondents reported that they follow brand profiles, with 43 percent saying that they have made a purchase through a social-media platform.

More than half of the 1,000 members of Gen Z — those born in the year 1994 or later — said that an ad in their social media feed drove them to make a purchase. Fifty-seven percent said that a celebrity endorsement of a product helped them make a purchasing decision.

The survey was published by Origin, a research group owned by Hill Holliday.