Facebook researchers discovered that approximately 1/8 of its 2.9 billion users suffer from addiction.
Users may experience problems with the platform, including poor sleep quality, parenting issues, and strained relationships.
While the issue is often referred to as “problematic usage” on social media, it is also known in wider society as “internet dependence”.
According to Wall Street Journal, users perceive Facebook’s usage patterns to be more problematic than other social media platforms, all of which seek to retain users returning to their sites.
Researchers from company Facebook found that 1 out of 8 users find the platform to be detrimental. It negatively affects users’ sleep, work and personal relationships.
The numbers are astounding, regardless of the terminology. 12.5 per cent of Facebook users have reported problems. This is more than 360,000,000 people.
According to the researchers, about 10 percent U.S. users are involved in these behaviors. The numbers could be even higher in India or the Philippines where the company has its largest market.
With the goal of mitigating the negative behavior that the company had identified, research was initiated into the effects of social media on people’s daily lives.
Researchers found that some Facebook users were not disciplined about how much time they spend on Facebook.
They noted that sex, shopping and other social media activities can cause some problems when they are repetitive or excessive.
A Facebook addiction can lead to serious problems such as loss of productivity, where people are unable complete their tasks because they spend too much time on the site. Others reported feeling tired from late-night scrolling.
These problems include a decrease in productivity, people being unable to finish tasks because they spent too much time on Facebook.
Some users complained of insomnia due to late-night scrolling.
Researchers found that some parents were more focused on Facebook than their child’s care or bonding, in certain cases.
Researchers found that compulsive use of Facebook was not limited to Facebook, but also a number of social media apps like Instagram and WhatsApp. These apps are all owned by Meta. Twitter and Snapchat were mentioned as well, with people feeling pressured into responding to messages and checking their phones for new content.
Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer of the company has indicated that it is still looking into the question of addiction. He stated that ‘we certainly don’t want our products addictive’ in November 2020 Senate hearing.
Different apps could be designed to stimulate addictive behavior, with red dots indicating when new content is available.
Another factor making it difficult to close the app is videos that autoplay.
Facebook offers settings to disable autoplaying and notifications, however they can be hard to find.
The Facebook “user well-being” team suggested several ways to stop ‘problematic’ use. A few of them were successfully implemented.
A number of measures were suggested, and eventually implemented. One was to decrease the number of notifications to users and to create tools to encourage people to take short breaks.
In the end, however, the group that suggested reducing such addiction was disbanded. A spokesperson for Facebook told The Journal that the company was still committed to solving the problem.
Dani Lever, an official spokesperson at Facebook, stated that “We have something to do, which is the reason why we’ve designed tools and controls for people to manage when and where they use our service,” in her statement.
“Furthermore we have dedicated teams working across our platforms in order to better understand these issues, and to ensure that people use our apps in meaningful ways.
It is believed that the company will make a fresh effort to combat ‘problematic consumption’, as well as other well-being issues such body image and mental wellbeing.
As they considered whether Facebook could be causing sleep issues or if people with sleep problems are simply using Facebook to find comfort, researchers added caution.
They urged the researchers to continue their research before closing down the unit.
“We are open to other teams taking on these opportunities,” one researcher wrote on Facebook’s intra communications system. “Please contact us if you can assist.”
Facebook’s 2017 executive addressed social media addiction despite the poor results of its own research.
The study suggested that passive social media use could cause people to feel less well, while those who are more active might feel happier.
‘Actively interacting with people—especially sharing messages, posts and comments with close friends and reminiscing about past interactions—is linked to improvements in well-being,’ the company said.
Facebook responded to this suggestion by changing its algorithm so that users could see content as angry or sensational. Such posts led to increased engagement.
The information was all contained in documents leaked to the press part of the Journal’s Facebook Files, a trove of reporting based on internal documents provided by whistleblower Frances Haugen.
This information was found in leaked documents to the media part of Journal’s Facebook Files. These files are a treasure trove of reporting that is based upon internal documents supplied by Frances Haugen, whistleblower.
According to the documents, Facebook was aware of the danger it caused and failed to take action.
According to one report, Facebook was aware that Instagram’s platform was dangerous for teens.
Haugen, who testified in front of Congress on October 5, stated that Facebook is ‘internally dysfunctional’ and it would be difficult for the company to alter its behavior without external regulators.
‘There’s only going to be a certain amount of time Facebook can say there is nothing causal out there,’ said public health professor Brian Primack who said the evidence gathered appeared to be ‘pointing in a certain direction.’
Writing about the research in a blog posting, Pratiti Raychoudhury, the Head of Research at Facebook claims the Journal misrepresented the research.
Raychoudhury stated that the company was ‘engaged and supportive during our multi-year effort to better understand people using our services to manage their problematic use. This is why the work was done over many years including this one.
Raychoudhury writes in her blog, that “problematic use doesn’t equal addiction” and that they introduced “features to help users manage their experience on our apps.
Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer of Facebook has indicated that they are continuing to investigate the problem.
He stated, in a Senate hearing on November 2020 that “We don’t want products to become addictive.” Zuckerberg indicated that although the results of research aren’t conclusive in this area, they have been studied and care about it.