Facebook is the most powerful force online — and these new numbers prove it
Welcome to Facebook's internet.
The social network is absolutely crushing the competition online, new information from the Pew Research Center shows — in case you needed more evidence.
Seventy-nine percent of American adults who use the internet are on Facebook, according to the results from a Pew survey released Friday, and 76 percent of them say they use it every day. The next-largest social network is Facebook-owned Instagram, with 32 percent of online adults.
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The survey indicates that older Americans are joining the social network "in increasing numbers."
"Some 62 percent of online adults ages 65 and older now use Facebook, a 14-point increase from the 48 percent who reported doing so in 2015," Pew's Shannon Greenwood, Andrew Perrin and Maeve Duggan wrote in a post about the survey.
And Facebook is used across demographics. Eighty-four percent of internet-connected Americans earning less than $30,000 a year use the social network, while 77 percent of online Americans earning at least $75,000 do. Eighty-one percent of urban-dwelling online Americans use Facebook, as do 81 percent of rural online Americans. And 77 percent of connected Americans with a high school degree or less use the service, while 79 percent of those with at least a college education do.
The research arrives at a controversial moment for Facebook. The site has come under fire this week for allowing the spread of misinformation in its News Feed.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg downplayed his site's influence at a tech conference Thursday night.
"Personally I think the idea that fake news on Facebook, which is a very small amount of the content, influenced the election in any way, I think is a pretty crazy idea," he said. "Voters make decisions based on their lived experience."
Previous research from Pew indicates that most Americans get news from social media, and 20 percent of American social media users say they've changed their views "on a political or social issue" because of something they saw on a site like Facebook.
Topics Facebook Social Media
Damon Beres is an Executive Editor at Mashable, overseeing tech and science coverage. Previously, he was Senior Tech Editor at The Huffington Post. His work has appeared in Reader's Digest, Esquire.com, the New York Daily News and other fine outlets.
