Facebook fatigue

More than two-thirds of online American adults are Facebook users, but findings from the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project indicate there is “considerable fluidity” in the Facebook user population.

Some highlights of the study are:

61% of current Facebook users say that, at one time or another, they have voluntarily taken a break from using the site for several weeks or more;

20% of the online adults who do not use Facebook say they once used it but no longer do; and

8% of online adults not currently using Facebook are interested in doing so in the future.

When Facebook users who have taken a break from the site were asked why they left, they gave a variety of reasons. The largest group (21%) said that their “Facebook vacation” was a result of being too busy with other demands or having insufficient time to spend on the site.

About one in 10 mentioned a general lack of interest in the site itself. Other reasons were an absence of compelling content (10%), excessive gossip or “drama” from their friends (9%) and spending too much time and needing a break (8%).

Among the former Facebook users, many cited similar themes to those who currently use the site but at one point took a break.

The vast majority of social networking site users (92%) maintain a profile on Facebook, but numbers point to a decreasing value and decline in usage over the past year, with 28% saying the site has become less important to them than it was a year ago and more than a third (34%) indicating the amount of Facebook time they spend decreased over that same period.

Some 42% of Facebook users ages 18 to 29 and 34% of those ages 30 to 49 say that the time they spend on Facebook on a typical day has dwindled in the last 12 months.