The most popular social media site, once proven addictive, is now slowly losing its users.
Facebook may be making a headline in the stock market, but some of its users have decided to take a hiatus from it in 2013. According to WRAL Tech Wire, 38 percent of users aged 18 to 29 plan to spend less time on Facebook.
Research from WRAL Tech Wire also stated that 61 percent of users have already taken breaks from the site for weeks at time. The report refers to the effect as Facebook Fatigue.
American adults bombard the web with their life stories, engaging moments and fun-filled memories with 67 percent of them using Facebook, 16 percent using Twitter, and 20 percent using LinkedIn.
“It gets predictable, people just talk about major sporting events,” Michael Galin, a sophomore in civil engineering, said. Galin turned off his news feed to stop seeing social updates from friends.
Galin said he preferred to have face-to-face communication rather than online interactions. He realized he could easily talk to his friends throughout the day rather than going through the web to socialize.
Galin said the only reason he keeps his Facebook account is because of groups on campus that communicate via Facebook. As a leader in many campus organizations, he found many people would fail to respond to notifications such as event invitations.
However, Facebook still remains the main tunnel to chatting, video-calling, sharing and instant messaging. With its users spending hours posting, liking and commenting on statuses, Facebook has evolved into a major avenue for staying connected with friends and family.
Although Facebook has 1.06 billion monthly active users worldwide, many have begun to view it as unprofessional. Facebook was designed for and targeted toward college students, but other groups such as high school students and adults began opening the doors of social networking.
While Facebook began mainly as a way of keeping in touch with friends, other sites have started focusing on more specific subjects, such as Instagram for photo sharing and LinkedIn for networking in the business world. Steve Larson, a graduate teaching assistant in the Department of Communication, believes the younger demographic of Facebook users have transferred over to Twitter and the older demographic has started to move toward LinkedIn.
“I think people aren’t using Facebook as often because other sites are currently more specialized and dynamic,” Larson said. “Additionally, I believe that people still use it; however, people no longer use it in the same way compared to when it started. Now people’s parents are on it, making it more restricted in how people communicate.”
Larson said he while he sees advantages to Facebook’s networking capabilities, the disadvantages stemmed from risking one’s privacy is certainly a matter worth considering.
