• totallynotarobot@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Genuine question, not trying to be a snob about it…

    Who actually uses Facebook and Instagram and stuff for news? It’s such a foreign idea to me that I’m interested in how many people actually get their news from these sites (as opposed to coming across it and interacting with it just because it’s there).

    Are there actually people who will consume less news because of this? Is it specific demographics?

    • Otter@lemmy.caOPM
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      1 year ago

      At one point I was following a few local news accounts on instagram because I’d scroll past some content while I was already looking through the feed. It wasn’t my only way of getting news, but just another form of it.

      Facebook dropping news probably won’t affect me much, but I can see Google being more impactful. I know some people use the news feed as their primary way of finding news, and I also click on news articles when they come up on the search. Depending on the extent of the removal, it might replace a lot of reputable news with content that isn’t “news” but still fills that niche.

      • totallynotarobot@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I guess that’s the alarming part - if people don’t change their habits and read ads as news.

        Thanks for the explanation!