MARCH 27, 2018

Americans’ complicated feelings

about social media in an era of
privacy concerns
BY LEE RAINIE
Link: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/03/27/americans-
complicated-feelings-about-social-media-in-an-era-of-privacy-concerns/

Amid public concerns over Cambridge Analytica’s use of Facebook data and a

subsequent movement to encourage users to abandon Facebook, there is a renewed
focus on how social media companies collect personal information and make it
available to marketers.

Pew Research Center has studied the spread and impact of social media since
2005, when just 5% of American adults used the platforms. The trends tracked by
our data tell a complex story that is full of conflicting pressures. On one hand, the
rapid growth of the platforms is testimony to their appeal to online Americans. On
the other, this widespread use has been accompanied by rising user concerns about
privacy and social media firms’ capacity to protect their data.

All this adds up to a mixed picture about how Americans feel about social media.
Here are some of the dynamics.

People like and use social media for several reasons

About seven-in-ten American adults (69%) now report they use some kind of
social media platform (not including YouTube) – a nearly fourteenfold increase
since Pew Research Center first started asking about the phenomenon. The growth
has come across all demographic groups and includes 37% of those ages 65 and
older.
The Center’s polls have found over the years that people use social media for
important social interactions like staying in touch with friends and family and
reconnecting with old acquaintances. Teenagers are especially likely to report that
social media are important to their friendships and, at times, their romantic
relationships.

Beyond that, we have documented how social media play a role in the way people
participate in civic and political activities, launch and sustain protests, get
and share health information, gather scientific information, engage in family
matters, perform job-related activities and get news. Indeed, social media is now
just as common a pathway to news for people as going directly to a news
organization website or app.

Our research has not established a causal relationship between people’s use of

social media and their well-being. But in a 2011 report, we noted modest
associations between people’s social media use and higher levels of trust, larger
numbers of close friends, greater amounts of social support and higher levels of
civic participation.

People worry about privacy and the use of their personal information

While there is evidence that social media works in some important ways for
people, Pew Research Center studies have shown that people are anxious about all
the personal information that is collected and shared and the security of their data.

Overall, a 2014 survey found that 91% of Americans “agree” or “strongly agree”
that people have lost control over how personal information is collected and used
by all kinds of entities. Some 80% of social media users said they were concerned
about advertisers and businesses accessing the data they share on social media
platforms, and 64% said the government should do more to regulate advertisers.

Another survey last year found that just 9% of social media users were “very
confident” that social media companies would protect their data. About half of
users were not at all or not too confident their data were in safe hands.
Moreover, people struggle to understand the nature and scope of the data collected
about them. Just 9% believe they have “a lot of control” over the information that
is collected about them, even as the vast majority (74%) say it is very important to
them to be in control of who can get information about them.

Six-in-ten Americans (61%) have said they would like to do more to protect their
privacy. Additionally, two-thirds have said current laws are not good enough in
protecting people’s privacy, and 64% support more regulation of advertisers.

Some privacy advocates hope that the European Union’s General Data Protection
Regulation, which goes into effect on May 25, will give users – even Americans –
greater protections about what data tech firms can collect, how the data can be
used, and how consumers can be given more opportunities to see what is
happening with their information.

People’s issues with the social media experience go beyond privacy

In addition to the concerns about privacy and social media platforms uncovered in
our surveys, related research shows that just 5% of social media users trust the
information that comes to them via the platforms “a lot.”

Moreover, social media users can be turned off by what happens on social media.
For instance, social media sites are frequently cited as places where people are
harassed. Near the end of the 2016 election campaign, 37% of social media users
said they were worn out by the political content they encountered, and large shares
said social media interactions with those opposed to their views were stressful and
frustrating. Large shares also said that social media interactions related to politics
were less respectful, less conclusive, less civil and less informative than offline
interactions.

A considerable number of social media users said they simply ignored political

arguments when they broke out in their feeds. Others went steps further by
blocking or unfriending those who offended or bugged them.
*Outline:
1, Topic: Americans' different reactions to the technology network on the privacy
of their personal information
2, Text org: Research report
3, Main idea 1: The reason people prefer and use social networking
- Supporting 1: Social media platforms are used for important social activities,
such as keeping in contact with family and friends and reconnecting with old
acquaintances. Especially for young people, social networking is considered an
important tool not only for friendship but also for romantic relationships
- Supporting 2: Social networking is now considered a popular means for people
to access the app or website of the news organization.
- Supporting 3: In the 2011 study, they noted moderate correlations between
people's use of social media and higher rates of trust, greater numbers of close
friends, higher levels of social support, and greater levels of civic involvement.
4, Main idea 2: People are concerned about their privacy and the use of their
personal info
- Supporting 1: A significant majority of users (91%) agreed that they feel like
they had lost control of how all sorts of organizations gather and use their personal
information. People feel worried about the way that marketers and corporations
accessing the data they post on social media sites and they think the government
should control this.
- Supporting 2: A small number of consumers feel safe and confident that their
information is kept confidential, but there is still a small amount of uncertainty
about that.
- Supporting 3: People are not clear about how they are being exploited and they
want privacy laws to be created.
5, Main idea 3: People's concerns about social media platforms further than
privacy
- Supporting 1: In addition to privacy concerns, only a handful of users feel that
information delivered to them via social networks is trustworthy.
- Supporting 2: The transmission of information through social networks reduces
its quality, along with the social network causing people to unfriend each other.
6, Main idea 4: Whether people are quitting or remaining on social media sites
- Supporting 1: Many people think that they can easily give up using social
networks, as they are too busy or social networks bring about negative things such
as the feeling of lack of time, too many dramas and gossip.
- Supporting 2: Most users are eager to solve the problem of information security.
They do it themselves by adjusting the privacy rights of the information they post,
but they still struggle to control it.
- Supporting 3: Researchers claim that giving up social media is difficult because
modern life is happening day by day on social networks, along with social
networking provides a large utility platform and is the tool for us to keep in touch
with people around.