January 13, 2019: Boomers can’t tell what’s fake and what’s not on Facebook
American researchers found that people over 65 are the most likely to share fake news on Facebook. Age seems to predict behaviour better than any other characteristic (education, race, sex) in this case.
Key takeaway: This is what I call “digital adolescence” (I should have written a book on the subject…). Our parents/grandparents find themselves in a completely different situation compared to us: We are digitally mature, while they are completely new to the medium… and will often say or do anything, or believe anything they read. It might be cute when they post a comment on one of your photos thinking they’re sending a private message, but it really isn’t when they share (and believe) fake news.
January 27, 2019: Facebook to start encrypting messages on Instagram and Messenger
After announcing it was going to (somewhat) merge Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram messages into one big pool, Facebook announced that it would also start to encrypt messages on Messenger and Instagram.
Key takeaway: WhatsApp’s founder was very against any kind of merger with Facebook platforms (mostly because of the question of encryption, or lack thereof). Now that he’s out of the way, this news isn’t that surprising. I personally think that this issue of “making it easier for users to connect” between apps (and adding encryption) is a smokescreen: Facebook is doing this to serve better (and more) ads.
January 27, 2019: People don’t really know how Facebook learns about their ad interests
Pew Research released a study on users’ perceptions (and understanding) of how Facebook learns (and stores) their interests to target ads to them. A whopping 74% of U.S. Facebook users didn’t know that Facebook maintained a list of their interests and traits.
Key takeaway: Though the survey was performed last September (a lot of bad press for Facebook continued to appear after that), it seems people don’t really understand what kind of personal data they are handing over to Facebook. And that’s good news for Facebook: As long as people don’t understand to what extent their data is being harvested, they can’t get (too) mad at Facebook.
February 3, 2019: Facebook’s recent problems don’t hurt its bottom line
Revenues increased 9% YoY in the last quarter. Monthly active users are also up 9% YoY. A decrease in active users in Europe has changed course, turning into an increase of 6M users compared to last quarter.
Key takeaway: We talk A LOT about Facebook’s problems (me especially), but the truth is they are still doing very well. We all sound like we’re mad at Facebook, but the vast majority of us are still using the platform and our clients are still pouring money into it. As long as they have these two things, they’re not going anywhere.
March 17, 2019: An estimated 15M U.S. users have left Facebook since 2017
Edison Research reports that the biggest drop was in the 12–34 age group, going from 79M in 2017 to 62M in 2019. The only age group showing growth is the 55+ group (+4M in two years). The decrease in Facebook users coincides with the growth of Instagram users.
Key takeaway: People are leaving Facebook to spend time on Instagram. The takeaway here is that people are not necessarily spending less time on social media, they’re just spending it at places other than Facebook.