Time, well-being key factors to quit social media: Study – The Peninsula

Time, well-being key factors to quit social media: Study – The Peninsula

Impact on time, distorted values, health and well-being, or an instigating incident are the main reasons for people to deactivate or quit social media, a local study has found.

Majority of respondents to the study — ‘Deactivated: Exploring why adults in Qatar quit social media’ — identified their health and well-being as key factors in their choice to deactivate social media accounts temporarily.

The study by Ghenwa Yehia and Karen McIntyre published in Qscience has investigated factors that influence adults aged 25–55 in Qatar to deactivate one or more social media accounts. The respondents to the study are from different nationalities, mainly expatriates living in Doha.

It also explored the most prominent factors such as behavioural capability, observational learning, reinforcements, expectations, and self-efficacy that support an individual’s discontinuous social media use.

Initially 279 recruitment messages have been sent to potential respondents but after different levels of screening 26 participants were interviewed for the study.

All of the respondents have made either direct or indirect references to the impact that social media use had on time as a contributing factor to deactivation.

The study said that many people described how their social media use was nothing more than “mindless scrolling” and “a complete waste of time.”

Some 58%