Limiting, leaving, and (re)lapsing

Abstract

Despite the abundance of research on social networking sites, relatively little research has studied those who choose not to use such sites. This paper presents results from a questionnaire of over 400 Internet users, focusing specifically on Facebook and those users who have left the service. Results show the lack of a clear, binary distinction between use and non-use, that various practices enable diverse ways and degrees of engagement with and disengagement from Facebook. Furthermore, qualitative analysis reveals numerous complex and interrelated motivations and justifications, both for leaving and for maintaining some type of connection. These motivations include: privacy, data misuse, productivity, banality, addiction, and external pressures. These results not only contribute to our understanding of online sociality by examining this under-explored area, but they also build on previous work to help advance how we conceptually account for the sociological processes of non-use.

Missing Photos, Suffering Withdrawal, or Finding Freedom? How Experiences of Social Media Non-Use Influence the Likelihood of Reversion

“…This configuration provides a clear means of identifying reverters who did not initially intend to return as early as they did. This arrangement also provides a unique complement to more common approaches such as scraping existing data (e.g., Backstrom, Boldi, Rosa, Ugander, & Vigna, 2012;Schoenebeck, 2014), purposive university-run surveys (e.g., Baumer et al, 2013;Lampe, Vitak, & Ellison, 2013), or qualitative interviews (e.g., Portwood-Stacer, 2013;Schoenebeck, 2014). Analysis of these data, though, may not provide fully generalizable conclusions.…”

“…The excluded are, against their will, prevented from using a technology, while the expelled previously used it but then were forced to stop. Other work suggests potential extensions, such as the "lagging resister" (Baumer et al, 2013) who has strongly considered dis-using some technology but not yet actually done so. In this article, we extend these typologies with the notion of a reverter, a rejecter who later becomes a user again.…”

“…An exploratory study of Facebook nonuse found that those who left the site reported being happy with their decision. Of those who deleted their account, very few returned, but of those who deactivated their account, almost half returned to the site (Baumer et al, 2013). Furthermore, a social contagion effect showed "respondents who knew someone that had deactivated were almost three times as likely to deactivate their account" (Baumer et al, 2013, p. 3261).…”

“…Some of this research examines rhetorical framing, for instance, of non-use as a political identity statement (Portwood-Stacer, 2013), or of the non-user as the epitome of an authentic human being (Harmon & Mazmanian, 2013). Other studies have examined motivations for leaving social media (Baumer et al, 2013), comparisons between users and non-users (Acquisti & Gross, 2006;Hargittai, 2008), or particular instances of non-use, for example, forgoing social media use during Lent (Schoenebeck, 2014). Whether an act of resistance or the result of infrastructural constraints, studying non-use illuminates the myriad factors that influence whether or not individuals use certain technologies.…”

“…The discourse around smartphone usage is, in many ways, characterized by fluctuations between extreme use and extreme non-use (Harmon & Mazmanian, 2013). In one study, nearly half the respondents who left Facebook subsequently returned to the site (Baumer et al, 2013). Another study focused on Grinder suggested departure as a gradual, tenuous, and, moreover, reversible process (Brubaker, Ananny, & Crawford, 2014).…”