While perusing the CNN news blurbs I came across the link "Survey finds fatigue with Facebook." Naturally, I was hoping this would be a prediction of Facebook's impending death that I could use to hassle some friends who invested in Facebook stock.
The article opens to say that, contrary to my hopes, most Facebook users take breaks of two weeks or more. The article concludes with the assertion that Facebook needs to amp up its interactive features in order to prevent a loss in users. The article offers the following statistics:
61% of Facebook users have taken a break from the service for several weeks or more
67%, of American adults who are online use Facebook.
21% of people said they were just too busy with real-life responsibilities to spend time reading posts, liking and commenting.
10% called it a waste of time
10% cited a lack of interest in the content
9% said they were unhappy with the amount of drama and gossip on the site.
4% of people mentioned privacy and security concerns as their reason for taking a breather.
I had two main issues with this article
1) The conclusion doesn't seem to draw from any substantial statistical information offered by the article. Only 10% of people said that they didn't have an interest in the current content on Facebook. The author of this article however feels that "Mark Zuckerberg's company needs to keep its users active on the site and mobile apps ... If Facebook starts to feel stale, more of its active users could take longer breaks or leave altogether," which will ultimately lead to the untimely demise I was hoping to see. However, to make this assumption based off of a relatively small stat without any other support is jumping to conclusions. There is also no clear statistical evidence given to the link between taking a break and leaving the site entirely which the article seems to suggest. This is something that might help the author's argument.
2) Second, there are absolutely no statistics given from previous years in this article. There is therefore no way of knowing if this a new behavior or if people have always taken breaks from Facebook. This would also provide insight into whether or not Facebook is truly at risk of losing users.
I came away from this article realizing how very little information you can take away from a relatively large amount of statistical data.
Sarah, I like your insight about the lack of contexts and substantial statistical information of this article. It would be deeply useful to see the way this statistics were carried over. For example, a lot of people can call Facebook a waste of time, yet that doesn't mean that they do not use it. Also the breaks of many weeks can be result of the holidays of "busy season" at their works or schools. The assumptions we can make from this data are millions, yet, without the proper presentation or surveying method...this data is almost useless.
ReplyDelete-(4)Xavier Maqueo
Sarah,
ReplyDeleteI find your post to be both interesting and insightful. Although I agree with the fact that Facebook is useless, I also agree with Xavi's statement about how even though many people think that Facebook is a useless social network, many people continue to use it. This could also pertain to those who said they lacked interest in the site and those who said they were unhappy about the amount of gossip and drama. Just because these people said they lacked interest in the site or were unhappy about all the drama, it does not mean that they do not continue to use the site. Sadly, I am one of those people who hates all the drama, yet I continue to glance at my news feed as I walk to class or if I am bored at home. I also agree with the fact that they should continue with this data for a few years to see if Facebook is in fact losing customers or if they are maintaing the same amount they started with. I think you brought a very important point at the end of your post. People truly do jump to conclusions when they are doing research. I feel like people in today's society are so obsessed with coming up with the newest and greatest discovery that they are willing to do whatever it takes, even if it involves rushing their research and jumping to conclusions that haven't been tested in an accurate and precise manner.