More Facebook Users Adjusting Relationship With the Platform

By Chris Lange Updated Jan 11, 6:23PM EST · Published Sep 5, 12:25PM EDT

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More Facebook Users Adjusting Relationship With the Platform — © bombuscreative / Getty Images

Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) has been the center of attention in recent years for propagating “fake news” and potential meddling in elections. As a result, users are starting to reframe their relationships with these social media platforms.

According to a recent survey from Pew Research, just over half of Facebook users ages 18 and older (54%) say they have adjusted their privacy settings in the past 12 months. Also, roughly four-in-10 (42%) say they have taken a break from checking the platform for a period of several weeks or more, while close to a quarter (26%) say they have deleted the Facebook app from their cellphone. About 74% of Facebook users say they have taken at least one of these three actions in the past year.

It’s worth pointing out that some of these statistics shift by demographics. 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.

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Pew Research concluded in its report:

In the wake of the revelations about Cambridge Analytica, Facebook updated its privacy settings to make it easier for users to download the data the site had collected about them. The new survey finds that around one-in-ten Facebook users (9%) have downloaded the personal data about them available on Facebook. But despite their relatively small size as a share of the Facebook population, these users are highly privacy-conscious. Roughly half of the users who have downloaded their personal data from Facebook (47%) have deleted the app from their cellphone, while 79% have elected to adjust their privacy settings.

The survey took place between May 29 and June 11 of this year.

Shares of Facebook were last seen down over 1% at $168.31, with a 52-week trading range of $149.02 to $218.62.

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About the Author Chris Lange →

Chris Lange is a writer for 24/7 Wall St., based in Houston. He has covered financial markets over the past decade with an emphasis on healthcare, tech, and IPOs. During this time, he has published thousands of articles with insightful analysis across these complex fields. Currently, Lange's focus is on military and geopolitical topics.

Lange's work has been quoted or mentioned in Forbes, The New York Times, Business Insider, USA Today, MSN, Yahoo, The Verge, Vice, The Intelligencer, Quartz, Nasdaq, The Motley Fool, Fox Business, International Business Times, The Street, Seeking Alpha, Barron’s, Benzinga, and many other major publications.

A graduate of Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, Lange majored in business with a particular focus on investments. He has previous experience in the banking industry and startups.