If you're a Facebook junkie, you may be constantly monitoring your feed the moment you wake up, during your commute, and even at school or work. However, a study suggests that a lot of Americans are doing just fine without Facebook.
The study was conducted by experts from the Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan American fact tank in Washington, D.C.
Data from the study revealed that 42 percent of American adults haven't checked their feeds for several weeks. The researchers also found that about 26 percent of Americans deleted the app from their smartphones.
10 Possible reasons why Americans don't care about Facebook anymore
Is it the incessant ads? The repetitive posts from your Facebook friends? Here are some reasons behind the social media purge observed in the study.
It's all about thin content.
Facebook doesn't just feature fake news. It's also full of thin content, or content that has little or no value to the user.
Delete Facebook from your phone if you're tired of looking at photos of food or silly duck-face selfies from people you barely know.
It can be overwhelming.
If you're on Facebook, you constantly receive countless notifications, texts, and emails. All these annoyances may be enough to convince someone to finally delete their Facebook account just to end the constant stream of spam in their inbox.
It can make you feel sad.
Cat videos are funny, but according to a 2012 study conducted by Hui-Tzu Grace Chou and Nicholas Edge, social media can negatively affect the mood of some users.
The findings suggest that individuals who spend more time on Facebook viewing pictures and videos posted by others have a tendency to think that their own lives are "less happy and joyful by comparison." (Related: Quitting Facebook can significantly improve your mental health, researchers conclude.)
It eats up your free time.
Do you really want to waste minutes or hours on Facebook when you could be having fun with your loved ones? Delete Facebook if you want more time for yourself and with your friends.
It's a means of living vicariously.
You can follow countless celebrities on Facebook and live vicariously through their photos and videos, but nothing beats living your own life and having your own adventures. Stop liking and commenting on random posts and go on trips with your family to see new places.
It's full of fake news.
Not everything you see online is true, and people could be swearing off Facebook because of fake news, which is defined as "news that’s not verifiable, transparent, and coherent."
Facebook is guilty of spreading fake news and in a 2019 study published in Science Advances, Andrew Guess and his fellow researchers determined that Facebook users aged 65 years and older shared seven times as many fake news articles during the 2016 presidential election compared to younger users.
Other users could also be getting tired of reading about politics, which is often very stressful.
It's mostly just "creepy" advertising.
If you're wondering why Facebook shows you certain ads at a specific time, someone may be spying on you. Some social media users believe that Facebook spies on them and if you value your privacy, you may want to delete your account right away.
It may be ruining your relationship.
In 2015, Ron Hammond and Hui-Tzu Grace Chou conducted a study which revealed that "time spent on Facebook is negatively correlated with satisfaction in the quality of intimate relationships." If you want to improve your love life, spend more time with your partner instead of scrolling through your Facebook feed.
It's not interesting enough for millennials.
Anyone can use Facebook, and people like your parents, grandparents, and teachers can see most of what you share online. To maintain their privacy, younger users are now switching to other social media apps like Instagram or Snapchat since most adults probably have no idea how to use these platforms.
If you're constantly stressed while you're browsing Facebook, consider quitting for a week or two. If your condition improves, it may be time to get in touch with friends in real life instead of browsing their feeds and staying home alone.
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