WHY THEY UNPLUGGEDAccording to the Pew Research Center, about 60 percent of Facebook users have taken a break of several weeks or more from the service at some point. Here are their reasons:21 percent “Was too busy” or “Didn’t have time for it.”10 percent “Just wasn’t interested” or “Just didn’t like it.”10 percent “Waste of time” or “Content was not relevant.”9 percent “Too much drama/gossip/negativity/conflict.”8 percent “Was spending too much time on the site.”8 percent “Only an intermittent or infrequent user.”7 percent “Went on a vacation/trip/deployment.”6 percent “Just got tired/bored with it.”4 percent “No real reason” or “Just because.”2 percent “Concerns about privacy/security/ads/spam.”2 percent “Did not have computer/Internet access.”2 percent “Prefer other ways to communicate”/”Facebook [is] not ‘real life.'”1 percent “Health or age issues.”1 percent “Didn’t like posting all the time”/”Didn’t want to share.”
There are just over 17,000 words in Shakespeare’s 154 sonnets. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s magnum opus, “The Great Gatsby,” barely squeaks past 47,000. Kurt Vonnegut’s “Slaughterhouse Five” doesn’t even crest 50,000.
Yet according to a 2013 study of more than 3 million social media accounts by Lifehack.com, the average social media user is exposed to content totaling about 54,000 words every day. Not to mention 443 minutes — more than seven hours — of video.
Faced with this glut of content and the pressure to monitor and update their accounts, some users say that, for the New Year, they’ve resolved to take a temporary “vacation” from social media.
“I know I need to take a break from it because I get so wrapped up in what’s happening on Facebook that it begins to affect my mood,” says Heather Kilgore of Rossville. “When I try to stay away from it, there’s a bit of anxiety about ‘What am I missing? Has anybody said something about that thing I posted?’