1. The State of Facebook
Part of program: “Facebook Fatigue: Fact or Fiction”
Lee Rainie, Director
Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project
National Asset Management
March 14, 2013
Email: Lrainie@pewinternet.org
Twitter: @Lrainie

2. Basics from December 2012 phone survey
http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2013/Coming-and-going-on-facebook.aspx
• 85% of American adults use internet
• 67% of online Americans use Facebook (57% of
all adults)

3. Facebook User
Demographics

4. Coming and Going on Facebook
• Facebook fasting: 61% of current Facebook users say
that at one time or another in the past they have
voluntarily taken a break from using Facebook for a
period of several weeks or more.
• Facebook dropouts: 20% of the online adults who do not
currently use Facebook say they once used the site but
no longer do so.
• Future Facebook users: 8% of online adults who do not
currently use Facebook are interested in becoming
Facebook users in the future.

5. Reasons for Facebook Breaks
• 61% of Facebook users have voluntarily taken a multi-week break from
the site in the past. Here’s why:

6. More frequent use
% of SNS users (more than just Facebook) who say they use the sites several times a day

7. How important is Facebook to
you?
• 59% of Facebook users say the social networking site is about
as important to them as it was a year ago. 53% say the
amount of time they spend on Facebook is about the same as
last year.
• 28% of Facebook users say the site has been less important to
them than it was a year ago. 34% of users say the amount of
time they spend on Facebook has decreased over the past
year.
• 12% of Facebook users say the site has become more
important to them than it was a year ago. 13% of users say
the amount of time they spend on Facebook has increased
over the past year.

8. Plans for this year on Facebook
3% of Facebook users say
they plan to spend more
time on the site.
27% say they plan to
spend less time on the
site.
69% plan to spend the
same amount of time on
the site.
Young people are the
most likely to say their
time spent on Facebook
will decrease.

9. Thank you!
Sources
Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project Omnibus Survey, December 13-16, 2012.
N=1,006 adults. Interviews conducted by landline and cell phone in English. The margin of error
is +/- 3.6 percentage points for the complete set of weighted data.
Corresponding report:
“Coming and Going on Facebook” http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2013/Coming-and-going-on-facebook.aspx
General reference page for Pew Internet’s work related to social media
http://pewinternet.org/Commentary/2012/March/Pew-Internet-Social-Networking-full-detail.aspx

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