According to a survey, the use of the Facebook social network to learn has begun to decline in the United States, many young people preferring to turn to couriers like WhatsApp to comment on the news, says a survey conducted for the Institute Reuters.
The Facebook usage rate, which remains the world's number one, has dropped nine percentage points in 2017 in the United States and 20 points in youth, according to this survey of 74,000 people in 37 countries.
"The use of the social network to learn has begun to decline in a number of key markets after years of steady growth," said Nic Newman, associate researcher at the Reuters Institute for Journalism Studies, a research and development center. research at Oxford University in the United Kingdom.
"We continue to see an increase in the use of messaging applications to comment on news because users are looking for more private (and less conflicting) spaces to communicate," he adds.
Most of YouGov's investigation for the Reuters Institute was carried out before Facebook, criticized for its algorithms to promote the dissemination of false sensational information, changed last January the operation of its lead. news.
Many users continue to fetch information on Facebook and Twitter but then they prefer more and more, to comment with their friends, more private spaces like WhatsApp or Snapchat.
According to the results of the survey, the use of WhatsApp, bought by Facebook in 2014 for $ 19 billion, and Instagram, also owned by the California giant, is growing strongly in Latin America and Asia, while Snapchat gains market share in Europe and the United States.
Less than half of those polled around the world say they trust the media most of the time, a figure that drops to 34% in the United States.
The well-established media and the audiovisual media, especially the public, are doing well compared with the tabloids and "pure players", the media only present on the internet, according to the results of the survey.
This study could be highlighted with the report Media Consumption Forecasts, which focuses on the consumption of newspapers, magazines, television, radio, cinema and on the internet. According to him, nearly a quarter (24%) of all media consumption worldwide will be mobile-oriented this year, compared to only 5% in 2011.
The report predicts that by 2020 this proportion will reach 28%, because mobile Internet takes the share of almost all other media. On average, we will spend a total of eight hours a day consuming media in all its forms.
If the mobile Internet takes more and more space in everyday life, especially with its rich and varied ecosystem (entry-level and mid-range phones, increasingly affordable internet offers, etc.), tools mobile messaging applications that reach millions of users (or more than a billion for WhatsApp) are likely to help boost this mode of media consumption.
