Dislike: 42% of Facebook users have taken a break from the social media site in the past year – and 8% deleted their account entirely
- Some 42% of users have taken a break from the social media site for weeks at a time, and 26% have deleted the app from their phone, a new survey reveals
- In addition, 7.8% of users have deleted or deactivated their Facebook account in the past year – and 62% have considered doing so, researchers discovered
- Millennials were the most likely to cut the social media cord, with 9.2% quitting Facebook, compared to 7.5% of Generation X and 1.1% of Baby Boomers
Facebook has been under fire for privacy concerns, data breaches and its dramatic growth after acquiring Instagram – and a new survey reveals that many users aren’t having it.
Some 42 percent of users have taken a break from the social media site for weeks at a time, and 26 percent have deleted the app from their phone, according to a survey of 1,012 U.S. adults by Security.org, an online security research firm.
In addition, 7.8 percent of users have deleted or deactivated their Facebook account in the past year – and 62 percent have considered doing so.
Millennials were the most likely to cut the social media cord, with 9.2 percent quitting Facebook, compared to 7.5 percent of Generation X and 1.1 percent of Baby Boomers.
This graph illustrates the top reasons that Americans say they have quit Facebook
The top reason cited for deleting Facebook was that people didn’t want the site to have their personal information (66 percent), followed by privacy concerns (61 percent).
More than half (58 percent) of users said there was too much unnecessary drama on Facebook, while 43 percent said they were tired of the excessive political arguments.
For many, life without Facebook is pretty good: 45.6 percent say they are significantly happier without the social media platform, and an additional 40.5 percent say they are slightly happier.
Nearly half (44.6 percent) of those who quit Facebook said their relationship with their significant other has gotten better since making the break, while 27 percent saw improvements in their relationships with friends.
This graph shows the top reasons that Facebook users say they can’t quit the social media site
The ‘quitters’ are finding other ways to use their time – 54 percent say they read more while 51 percent spend more time with their family and the same amount watch TV when they would have otherwise been on Facebook.
Nearly half (47 percent) say they now exercise more that they’ve left behind the social media site.
Among those who haven’t quit the site, 65 percent say they stay because they use Facebook to keep in touch with friends and family, while 35 percent say they don’t want to lose the pictures they have on the account.
An additional 34 percent just enjoy using Facebook, and 29 percent stick around because they don’t want to miss out on news.
Facebook remains the most-used social media platform among Millennials (88 percent), Generation X (88 percent) and Baby Boomers (92 percent).
Instagram comes in second for Millennials (67 percent) and Generation X (53 percent), while Baby Boomers favor using Twitter (51 percent).
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