Study: Facebook fatigue -- it's real

It's not just you. Tuning out Facebook for weeks at a time is commonplace, according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, which found that a majority of the current Facebook users it surveyed have at one time or another tired to the point of avoiding the social-networking site.

Pew used Princeton Survey Research Associates International to conduct the actual telephone interviews with a representative sample of 1,006 adults in the U.S.

The Pew study found that 61 percent of the Facebook users who responded have taken extended, weeks-long breaks from the site. Those who have taken Facebook sabbaticals did so for the obvious reasons: 21 percent were too busy, 10 percent lost interest, and 10 percent felt it was a waste of time.

(Credit: Pew Research) The verbatim comments that Pew recorded sound like overheards at coffee shops across the country. Here are a few:

• "I was tired of stupid comments."


• "[I had] crazy friends. I did not want to be contacted."


• "I took a break when it got boring."


• "It was not getting me anywhere."


• "Too much drama."


• "People were [posting] what they had for dinner."


• "I don't like their privacy policy."


• "It caused problems in my [romantic] relationship."

The study, should you trust... [Read more]





by Jennifer Van Grove via CNET