Facebook Rants Deter U.S. User

Don't want to go on Facebook because you don't hear what your second cousin has to say about politics anymore? You're not alone. Some people are being deterred from Facebook because of the rants and personal comments their families and friends share, according to a May survey conducted by Edison Research.

The number of Facebook users in the U.S. are dropping. 67 percent of the total U.S. population over the age of 12 used the platform in 2017. The following year, that number decreased by five percent, and then took another dip in 2019 when it dropped to 61 percent. According to Edison Research's most recent study, that means there were an estimated 172 million current Facebook users.

While Facebook was the first social media platform to take the world by storm, there are others popping up. Recent times have seen the rise of YouTube and TikTok, a video-sharing social networking app. The platform, owned by ByteDance, a Beijing-based company founded in 2012, is increasingly popular with Gen Z.