Facebook may become a less effective way of reaching prospective senior living residents and their family members if current conditions hold, suggest recently released survey results from the Pew Research Center.

Pew surveyed U.S. adults May 29 to June 11 and found that fears of unauthorized collection of personal information and a desire for more privacy may be driving some older adults away from the social network.

Specifically:

  • 40% of respondents aged 65 or more years said they have taken a break from checking Facebook for several weeks or more within the past year.
  • 33% of those 65+ said they have adjusted their privacy settings on Facebook within the past year.
  • 12% of 65+ poll-takers said they have deleted the Facebook app from their smartphones within the past year.
  • 61% of those 65+ said they understand “not very well” how Facebook determines which posts display in their news feeds, including 28% who said they didn’t understand it at all.
  • 79% of participants aged 65 or more years said they have not intentionally tried to influence which content appears in their news feed by adjusting settings on the social media platform.

Adults aged 50 to 64, the age of many children of prospective residents, reported similar percentages for these actions.

Facebook is the most commonly used social media site by U.S. seniors, according to research released earlier this year by Pew.

Read more about the latest findings here and here.