The Addiction to Facebook

One of the many tasks I handle for Jupiter Promotions is staying on top of what is out there that we can use as a company to help our clients remain relevant with their target markets. As part of that, I find myself doing a lot of research on studies and articles that relate to social media, public relations, marketing and any other area that could be beneficial to our clients. One of the more recent finds had to do with a study from Cornell University on why people are unable to quit Facebook.

The study focused on the "99 Days of Freedom" campaign, which was launched back in 2014 to encourage people to log off for 99 days. For those who failed to make it all 99 days, the research team reached out to the participants at the 33-, 66- and 99-day marks to find out what caused them to go back to Facebook.

One of the biggest reasons was the perception that people were, in fact, “addicted” to Facebook. Many of those who signed up for the project soon realized that Facebook had become such a part of their daily routine that something was missing when they didn’t log into their account.

Another reason people kept coming back was because of the impact Facebook had on how they approached life itself. Many people were so concerned about how they used Facebook to interact with others or to gauge opinions and perceptions of themselves that they couldn’t remove it from their lives. Eric Baumer, a research associate at Cornell, said in the study that people who showed a propensity to care about people’s impressions of them were likely to feel a need to be on Facebook.

"What we're thinking is happening there is people who are more concerned with impression management are more likely to go back to Facebook," Baumer said. "Because if you're not on Facebook, you can't do a really good job of managing what other people are thinking of you."

Loneliness was listed as another reason people found their way back to Facebook. People who had tendencies to use social media as an outlet to get past feelings of isolation were often finding themselves in need of Facebook.

A final reason the study gave for people being unable to quit Facebook had to do with a lack of other outlets for people to have for socialization. In other words, people have reached a point in which they need at least some form of social media to interact with others.

On the one hand, social media has given us a place we can go to share our lives with those in our social circles. On the other hand, people seem to be unable to avoid sharing with the world what is going on with their lives. It might be check-ins at every location or photos of each meal or a consistent flow of family photos for all to see.

This is why Jupiter Promotions has embraced social media and our staff has worked hard to make sure we are using it effectively for our clients. Whether it is Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or some other form of social media, it isn’t going away and people are flocking to it more than ever. If your company isn’t using it effectively, then we can do that for you. We want your target market to be as addicted to you as they are their social media outlets.