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Brits quitting social media

A number of social media sites are beginning to lose a significant number of British users, according to a recent poll.

The study surveyed a total of 1,000 British social media users and a staggering 78% stated that they had either ditched some of the largest social media sites, such as Twitter and Facebook, or had at lease seriously considered deleting their accounts for good.

The survey was completed by Kaspersky Lab, a Russian cyber security firm that is operated by a holding company in the UK. The company operates in more than 200 countries worldwide and boasts a team of 3,300 cyber security specialists.

When asked about their reasoning behind abandoning social media, the main reasons appeared to be that users were fed up of being trolled, the number of adverts that were being shown on the sites, and the amount of fake news that was being regularly circulated.

One of the core reasons cited was the circulation of fake news. This has been a major problem for Facebook in recent months and one in which the site has come under much scrutiny for as a result.

Furthermore, the poll revealed that 42% of participants stated they were fed up of seeing posts and updates related to their ‘more popular’ friends on these sites, with 45% complaining that they did not like seeing their friends and acquaintances enjoying themselves whilst on holiday.

Another 37% of those surveyed said they used social media sites to look back on their own photos and felt sad because their present life was ‘not as interesting’ as their younger life.

Other top complaints amongst participants included the invasion of trolls, pop-up adverts and fake news. Nearly three quarters of those polled (72%) said that they stopped looking at social media sites because they felt the adverts published on them were intrusive and irritating.

Kaspersky Lab’s David Mole explained that the findings suggest that people’s relationship with social media has turned into a vicious cycle, highlighting that we tend to log on to share our positive experiences with all of our connections then, when we do log on, we are bombarded with content that may suggest our friends are having more fun than us, making us unhappy.

Furthermore, Mole states that we live in a time where we are constantly searching for social approval, which causes some people to blur the boundaries between what is acceptable to share and what is best kept private.

Remember, though, your friends will most likely only share the best moments of their lives so what you’re seeing on Facebook is very much an edited highlights reel. They’re not really having that much fun all the time. While everyone will share photos of themselves on the holiday of a lifetime, nobody shares photos of themselves sat at home with a microwavable meal for one watching repeats of Catchphrase on Challenge TV.

Alan Littler

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