Too much drama, boredom and scads of irrelevant information are just some of the reasons why Facebook users take a break from the world's biggest social networking site for weeks at a time, according to a new study.
A report from the Pew Research Center's internet and American Life Project found that some 61 per cent of Facebook users had taken a hiatus of at least several weeks for myriad reasons, whether they were weary from an onslaught of gossip, or for the more pious, the arrival of Lent.
Yet the use of Facebook, whether constant or not, is pervasive in America.
Of the American adults who use the internet, 67 per cent are on Facebook, Pew found. That compares with 20 per cent who use LinkedIn and 16 per cent who are on Twitter.
But users do come and go, some temporarily, and some for good.
Seven per cent of internet users said they used Facebook at one point but no longer do. By its own count, Facebook Inc has 1.06 billion users worldwide who check in at least once a month. This includes millions of duplicate and fake accounts. More than 150 million users are in the US.
The largest slice of users, 20 per cent, said they were simply too busy with their own lives to follow the constant stream of status updates, George Takei quotes and baby photos.
Privacy and security concerns, which have received plenty of media coverage, were low on the list. Only four per cent of people gave these reasons, combined with concerns about ads and spam, as their "Facebook vacation" motivation.
Lee Rainie, director of the internet and American Life Project, said privacy is more of a big policy question that people do not concern themselves with day-by-day. Rather, people are contemplating how they spend their time and allocate their attention.
"People are making interesting calibrations and recalibrations" about how they spend their time and about the worth of constantly staying connected to friends, family and others online, Rainie said.
And while people do take Facebook breaks, internet users are logging in more frequently than ever, the study found.
Among other interesting tidbits:
- 59 per cent of Facebook users said the site is about as important to them as it was a year ago.
- 12 per cent said Facebook is more important to them than it was a year ago and 28 per cent said it has become less important.
- Eight per cent said they took a break from Facebook because they were spending too much time using it.
- 69 per cent said they plan to spend the same amount of time on Facebook in the coming year. Twenty-seven per cent plan to spend less time on the site and three per cent, more time.
Responding to the report, Facebook said that its growth and user engagement remains strong.
"As we announced last week, Facebook has grown daily active users across all regions, ending the year with more than one billion monthly active users, 618 million daily active users and 680 million people accessing Facebook from mobile devices," according to a company statement.
"Our announcement came on the heels of independent analyst reports which concluded that Facebook is the most downloaded mobile app in the US, and that time spent on Facebook accounts for over 20 per cent of all time spent on mobile apps in the US."
The Pew study of 1006 US adults was done in December. It has a margin of error of 3.6 percentage points.
