An estimated 12.5% of Facebook users (almost 360 million) are addicted to the social media platform. According to internal corporate documents obtained by the media, Facebook addiction is affecting sleep, work, relationships, and parenting.
According to a study in the Wall Street Journal, Facebook researchers discovered that one in every eight of the social media platform’s users reports engaging in obsessive usage of social media. This is what Facebook refers to as “problematic use of its platform.” According to the researchers, the flaws affect 12.5% of Facebook’s more than 2.9 billion users, or more than 360 million people, according to their estimates.
According to the research, which cited internal Facebook records, “the app interferes with sleep, work, relationships, and parenting for around 12.5% of users, who said that they believed Facebook was a bigger problem than other social networking platforms.” In addition, the discoveries are part of the Facebook Files series, which began in 2012.
They were seen as worse by users on Facebook than on any other major social media network, according to the papers, which all strive to keep users coming back, the newspaper stated late on Friday. “The Wall Street Journal has chosen to selectively pick and choose from internal company documents to present a narrative that is simply incorrect about how we use research to address an important issue — this time about problematic use,” said Meta, the parent company of Facebook, in response to the report.
They were seen as worse by users on Facebook than on any other major social media network, according to the papers, which all strive to keep users coming back, the newspaper stated late on Friday.
“Addiction is not synonymous with problematic usage. The term “problematic usage” has been used to characterize people’s interactions with a variety of technology, such as televisions and cellphones “Pratiti Raychoudhury, Vice President and Head of Research at Meta, shared her thoughts. According to Raychoudhury in a blog post, “Since 2018, we have developed roughly 10 products to better support people’s well-being, including problematic usage of our applications, and that effort continues today.”
According to the article, internal research was conducted to determine how many users on Facebook are experiencing problematic use. In response, Meta stated, “That is irresponsible since, as highlighted in the report itself, the research was supposed to be as comprehensive as possible to assist us better grasp the situation.”
