Science

People are spending less time on Facebook after the firm tweaked the News Feed, study finds


People are spending LESS time on Facebook after the firm tweaked the News Feed to bring users ‘closer together’, study finds

  • Time spent among US adults on Facebook dropped by 3 minutes per day in 2018
  • Changes to Facebook’s News Feed algorithm were likely a contributing factor
  • Young adults are using Facebook less in favor of spending time on Instagram 

Facebook’s efforts to crack down on misinformation and sensational content have reduced the time spent at the leading social network, researchers said Tuesday.

The average amount of time US adults spent at Facebook dropped by three minutes per day last year and will likely decrease by another minute next year, to a total of 37 minutes daily, according to the research firm eMarketer.

The report suggests that Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg’s efforts to focus on safety and remove divisive and hateful content could be having an economic impact.

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Facebook's efforts to crack down on misinformation and sensational content have reduced the time spent at the leading social network eroding, researchers said Tuesday

Facebook’s efforts to crack down on misinformation and sensational content have reduced the time spent at the leading social network eroding, researchers said Tuesday

Earlier this month, the social media giant altered its News Feed algorithms yet again, in order to prioritize posts from family and friends, as well as links you might consider ‘most worthwhile.’

‘Facebook’s continued loss of younger adult users, along with its focus on down-ranking clickbait posts and videos in favor of those that create “time well spent,” resulted in less daily time spent on the platform in 2018 than we had previously expected,’ said eMarketer principal analyst Debra Aho Williamson.

‘Less time spent on Facebook translates into fewer chances for marketers to reach the network’s users.’

Money taken in from digital ads are the leading source of revenue at Facebook, which has 2.4 billion monthly active users around the world.

A bright spot for Facebook is that daily US engagement is creeping up at its image and video focused social network Instagram, where eMarketer expected it to rise a minute this year to 27 minutes and then another minute per year through 2021.

‘Features like Stories, influencer content and video are all contributing to more engagement and a slow but steady uptick in time spent on Instagram,’ Williamson said.

Meanwhile, time people in the US spend at Instagram rival Snapchat has seemingly plateaued at 26 minutes daily.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has made changes to the firm's News Feed algorithms several times, in order to prioritize posts from friends and family, as well as trusted news sources

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has made changes to the firm’s News Feed algorithms several times, in order to prioritize posts from friends and family, as well as trusted news sources

The social media firm’s recent application redesign seems to have failed to boost engagement, according to eMarketer.

A broader trend seen last year was for Americans to spend less time at online social networks, and the overall engagement was expected by eMarketer to remain unchanged this year at almost one hour, 14 minutes per day.

‘Gains in digital video viewing are putting pressure on social time, and gaming is also creating new competition for user attention,’ Williamson said.

‘Though we can’t say there is a direct cause-effect relationship, these activities do at least threaten users’ engagement with social media.’ 

HOW FACEBOOK PRIORITIZES FRIENDS IN YOUR NEWS FEED

Up until now, Facebook has prioritized material that its algorithms think people will engage with through comments, ‘likes’ or other ways of showing interest.

But 33-year-old founder Mark Zuckerberg says he wants to change the focus to help users have ‘more meaningful social interactions.’

The move follows his resolution in 2018 to ‘fix’ the site. 

It is also in response to criticism that Facebook and its social media competitors reinforce users’ views on social and political issues.

Critics also say sites like Facebook lead to addictive viewing habits.

Zuckerberg cited research that suggests reading ‘passively’ on social media was damaging for people’s mental health, while interacting proactively with friends was positive.

According to Adam Mosseri, Facebook’s New Feed boss, in practice the change mean

  • Posts from friends and family will get more prominence that video, news, and other content from formal Facebook pages, such as companies and celebrities
  • The number of comments on a post will count more than the number of Likes  
  • Posts where people have spend the time to write lengthy comments will be prioritized over those with only short comments
  • While, news and video will still appear in News Feed, the number of friends sharing it will matter more than its overall popularity

The shift could mean that the time people spend on Facebook and some measures of engagement would go down in the short term.

However, Zuckerberg said it would be better for users and for the business over the long term. 



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