Facebook is more popular than ever in its ten years of existence, but a Pew Research Center survey investigated what people are actually using the social media site for.
According to the Pew Research Center, the site is used by 57 percent of adults and 73 percent of people ages 12-17. Despite multiple reports claims suggesting teens are getting rid of their Facebook account, the use remains at all-time high.
However, the reasoning behind the use of Facebook differs drastically between men and women. According to the Pew survery, women as most likely to use Facebook to see videos and photos while men used the site to share something with many people at once.
"Users say they especially appreciate photos and videos from friends (47 percent say that's a major reason they use the site), the ability to share with many people at once (46 percent cite that as a major reason), updates from others (39 percent cite that), and humorous content (39 percent)," the Pew Research Center stated in a news release, referring to the general reasons for joining the website.
Another factor in how you use Facebook is your age. According to the survey, the older you are, the less Facebook "friends" you are likely to have. If your age range is between 18-29 years old, the median number of "friends" you have is 300, but if you're over 50 years old, you are likely to have less than 100 friends online.
However, being a younger user makes you more likely to get strange requests online, including a fellow friend asking you to "unfriend" someone on their Facebook account.
"These 'friend removal' requests tend to come primarily from other friends (35 percent), or from current (23 percent) or former (12 percent) spouses or romantic partners," the Pew Research Center findings stated. "[Thirty- eight] percent of those who received this type of request say that they were asked to remove a friend from their Facebook network, while 22 percent were asked to unfriend a former romantic partner."
There are more interesting facts about the recent Facebook user surge. Click here to read more about the Pew Research Center survey.
