A new study reveals why people reject or resist facebook
As free speech becomes more of a barrier on social media, expect a slow exodus from certain audiences. Do you fall into this group or will you in the near future? A recent survey analyzed the data of 210 Dutch Facebook users aged 18-35, which is the age that uses it the most globally. 113 were resistors while 97 were rejectors. In fact a week ago Ohio attorney general Republican David Yoast wants to sue google to become a public utility so it can be regulated by the government. The global influence of social media platforms and google have taken some power away from politicians. Fake and real news spreads by the second and many people simply spend too much time on their phones. However, just recently we’ve witnessed big tech donate to Joe Biden this past presidential election. One could argue that despite not claiming a political party, social media platforms are dominated by the left and extreme left. The social media owners understand this as the majority of their revenue is from ads.
Privacy issues such as data scandals have caused some Facebook users to move to other social media platforms. However, tik tok and WhatsApp are no strangers to data scandals as well. The dutch study attempts to highlight the difference between rejectors and resistors. Rejectors may reject a platform but still use another, while resistors resist social media entirely. Also, while facebook differs in terms of how and why it functions from other platforms, the study urges caution when comparing the findings of Facebook to other social media platforms.
Since 1995 there have been studies on the nonusers of the internet. In 2003 the motivations for non-use were cited as; distraction, applicable and productivity issues, platform or provider-specific issues, and perceived lack of benefits as reflected by social and peer groups.
Researches found that if the perceived benefits of facebook were too low and the risk too high they will quit or reject Facebook. For instance, giving up productivity and privacy to name a few. Furthermore, 1 in 4 users cited privacy as the main cause to reject Facebook. Not wanting to live in a “global aquarium”, having their name and picture reveal to the world. Lastly, some feel that Facebook doesn’t genuinely respect the privacy of its users. Even amongst senior citizens privacy remains an issue. The top three reasons were; users felt the site host didn’t do enough to protect their data, the contacts of users will be shared, and 3rd parties(employers, law enforcement) may get access to their information. After privacy, nonusers saw distraction as the next reason to reject Facebook.
“Nonusers often see Facebook as a waste of time or an undesirable disrupter of concentration” (Guo et al. 2012; Stieger et al. 2013)
Nonusers also had a hard time ending conversations with friends via instant messaging and were continuously contacted by others. Next, political motivation and ideologies were another reason. With Alex Jones, and other extreme groups were subject to Facebook bans. Facebook still remains mostly extreme left, as this makes up the majority of their audience. Google and Facebook remain the most liberal of all social media platforms users(39%)
Facebook and other platforms claim to appeal to all but have a bias towards their users political ideologies who also spend the most on ads.
Disinterest was on the list as well. Nonusers and resistors felt that there were other and better ways of communicating. Also, when people felt they weren’t getting valued updates from contacts they felt no motivation to use Facebook. How many people have you had a conversation with on your friend’s list? It’s only possible to keep in touch with 150 friends. Yet Facebook’s friend limit is 500. Nonusers describe social networking sites such as Facebook conversation as “banal” and “trivial”. . Nonusers don’t want to be forced to communicate and disliked narcissism being displayed on Facebook.
A 2014 study revealed that employers rejected 25% of applicants based on their social media posts
Lastly, social factors played a role in turning users and nonusers away from Facebook. Feeling social pressure from employers and friends to engage in Facebook was enough to turn them away from the platform. Furthermore, the study cited narcissism as a barrier to engaging with people on Facebook. Participants didn’t want to be rated amongst friends, and jealousy and envy were cited as other reasons as well..
The number one motivator to resisting Facebook was disinterest. The followers are reasons why the participants were disinterested in the platform;
- Other ways of communicating work just as well or better”
- “I am annoyed by the way in which people present and glorify themselves on Facebook”
- “I deem the posts and information on Facebook of too low quality in general”
- “I do not understand the usefulness of Facebook”
In conclusion, it appears that the resistors see social media and Facebook for what it is. A data generating ad revenue platform disguised as a social network platform. Keeping users on the platform is the sole objective of Facebook, hence the infinite scroll. While privacy ranked as the number two motivator to not use facebook, the majority still saw the lack of practicality of the platform. Many preferred face to face interaction as opposed to facebook. As a result expect facebook to combat the top two motivators of why people choose to disengage on their platform. Facebook will have to make their platform more interesting and reassure its users that their data is safe which it has been doing. Regardless of what facebook does, these studies are refreshing to know that there is still hope in humans not becoming slave to social media platforms.
Where do you personally fall on this study? Do the reason people choose to not engage with Facebook resonate with you? Let us know in the comment section below.