TheFacebook usersthey go to the social networkmainly to know what their friends and acquaintances do. And if they read current news they do so “by chance”, according to a study carried out by the Pew Research Center among 5,173 people to learn about the habits of this community.
Thus, when asked what they use Facebook for, 68 percent of users answered that to see what their friends and family were doing. Almost the same proportion, 62 percent, admit that if they are on Facebook it is mainly to see photos of their friends.
Less common is the power responsechat with friends (38 percent) and share your own photos (28 percent)and even less generalized those who say that their main reason for using the social network is to read the news (16 percent), a similar proportion to those who say that they use Facebook mainly for their games (14 percent) or to write on their personal status (17 percent).
Furthermore, the vast majority of people, 78 percent, whoThey read news on Facebook and point out that they do it because they were on the social network for another reason and they found it. Half of the users (52 percent) say they like to find news mixed with other content on their wall and only 10 percent are bothered that friends and family publish news. Nor do opinions about current news seem to bother the Facebook community (16 percent do).
Conversely,52 percent of Facebook users say that it bothers them when someone they know shares very personal information or complains about their lives(47 percent) or publishes several times a day (37 percent) or writes about politics (35 percent).
In any case, even those who use Facebook to read news point out that the social network is a complement to other sources of information. Only 4 percent of those surveyed say that the site is their main way of finding out. Meanwhile, 39 percent say it is important, but not the most important and the majority, 57 percent, think that Facebook is not a very important source of news.
