By Bradley Bennett [1]
BELLEVILLE – Loyalist students say they use Facebook mainly for communicating with friends and family, but none of them seem to be moving away from the social media platform as a new study suggests.
Facebook has been in the news a lot this week with two big stories from Buzzfeed News [2] and Wired Magazine [3]. Both of these stories preach people should be cautious on Facebook because of misleading information and the ability for posts to spread quickly to multiple users no matter if it’s fake or true. Loyalist students say they are more worried about ads popping and drama amongst friends.
The research firm emarketer [4] has been publishing data throughout the year showing that there is a “lessening usage among teens and young adults,” but anecdotally students at Loyalist seem to be using Facebook just as much as before.
The emarketer study attributes the decline in young Facebook users to the to rise of newer social media platforms such as Snapchat and Instagram.
If Loyalist students are any indication it seems that the trend is Facebook is more of a communication platform and the newsfeed is not a draw for a majority of users.
Also most students who spoke to QNet News seemed to think that Facebook will continue to be as popular as it is now into the next ten years.