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Study: 33% of Facebook Users Want Less News In Their Feed (businessinsider.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the clickbait dept.

An anonymous reader writes from a report via Business Insider: According to a survey of 526 random Facebook users conducted by Spot.IM, 33% of Facebook users in the U.S. want to see fewer news articles in their feeds. The survey comes at a time when Facebook is desperately trying to improve the quality of publisher articles that gain traction on its platform. Here are some important takeaways from the study: Older people are likelier to want less news in their Facebook feeds. While 33% of all respondents indicated there was too much news and shared links in their Facebook feeds, the majority of this group was individuals aged 30 or older. Those 30-44 (37%), 45-59 (36%), and 60+ (36%) said they want less news in their feeds. Young Facebook users enjoy consuming news on social media. While middle-aged and older Facebook users don't like seeing news in their feeds, those aged 18-29 were much more interested and excited to see even more news articles on Facebook. 32% of respondents in this group wanted to see more news, while just 21% wanted less. This is an encouraging sign for publishers who want to reach a new generation of news consumers. The majority of people don't care about how much news they see on Facebook. Overall, 51% of all surveyed said they simply don't care if more or less news shows up in their Facebook feeds. A study conducted in June by Columbia University says that 59% of people don't even read the articles they share.

1 of 95 comments (clear)

  1. Re:No news! by H3lldr0p · · Score: 3, Informative

    As do I but the thing is FB can't turn the thing they were originally being used for into advertising dollars.

    To turn all of our eyeballs into dollars, they need to show us "news" they've been paid to display given certain demographics. That's why this is happening. Why they've been upping the ante with adblockers. Why they added the autoplay feature to videos and every other stupid move they've made in the past few years. They know their conversion/interaction/bullshit measurement rate is bullshit and their advertisers and stockholders are calling them on it.

    Expect it to get worse before it gets better. Or FB falls off that internet cliff that MySpace went over before them.