Facebook users are committing 'virtual identity suicide' in droves

 Facebook users are quitting the social network in droves due to privacy concerns and fear of internet addiction, according to research from Vienna University. Analysis of more than 600 people found that data protection issues and social pressure to add friends were also among the reasons for leaving

Facebook users are quitting the social network in droves due to privacy concerns and fear of internet addiction, according to new research.

Increasing numbers are taking part in what's been dubbed 'virtual identity suicide' and deleting their accounts.
Analysis of more than 600 people, by researchers from the University of Vienna, found that data protection issues and social pressure to add friends were also among the reasons for leaving.
Others quoted shallow conversations, general dissatisfaction and loss of interest in the site.

REASONS FOR QUITTING FACEBOOK

Privacy concerns: 48.3 per cent
General dissatisfaction: 13.5 per cent
Shallow conversations: 12.6 per cent
Fear of becoming addicted: 6 per cent

Earlier this year research showed Facebook had lost nine million monthly users in the United States and two million in Britain.
These figures come from research carried out by SocialBakers in April.
Psychologist Stefan Stieger from the university recorded each of the 600 participants' responses to assessment measures based on their level of concern over various issues.
Those who stopped using social media were more concerned about privacy, had higher addiction scores and tended to be more conscientious.
Professor Stieger said: 'It could be possible that personality traits influence the likelihood of quitting one's Facebook account indirectly via privacy concerns and Internet addiction.
'In this case, the concern about one's privacy and Internet addiction propensity would not be directly in charge for quitting one's Facebook account, but would function as mediators of the underlying personality traits.

Quitters were older, on average, and more likely to be male. Reasons for quitting Facebook were mainly privacy concerns at 48.3 per cent, general dissatisfaction at 13.5 per cent, negative aspects of online friends, 12.6 per cent, and fear of getting addicted at 6 per cent

FACEBOOK AROUND THE WORLD

More than half of residents in Canada, UK, Ireland, U.S, Australia and New Zealand use Facebook.
Ireland has the most with 63 per cent, followed by Australia on 61 per cent.
New Zealand has 58 per cent of people on the social network site, while the UK has 55 per cent and the U.S has 47 per cent. 
Facebook in Ireland has 2.25 million monthly users. A third of Irish Facebook users want less photos and more status updates and get annoyed by images of their friends' children.
Two in five Irish adults admitted to lying on Facebook.

Source: Statcounters/Eircom B&A Survey 2013

Compared to the sample of those who continued to use Facebook, the quitters were older, on average, and more likely to be male.
Reasons for quitting Facebook were mainly privacy concerns (48.3 per cent), followed by a general dissatisfaction (13.5 per cent), negative aspects of online friends (12.6 per cent) and the feeling of getting addicted (6.0 per cent).
Brenda Wiederhold, editor of the journal Cyberpsychology, Behaviour and Social Networking which published the findings, said: 'Given high profile stories such as WikiLeaks and the recent NSA surveillance reports, individual citizens are becoming increasingly more wary of cyber-related privacy concerns.
'With photo tags, profiling, and internet dependency issues, research such as Professor Stieger's is very timely.'

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