If you’ve thought about deleting your Facebook account, chances are it’s completely unrelated to concerns about privacy settings and how your personal data is used.
So what is the primary motivation for most Facebook FB, -2.66% users when they think about abandoning the social networking platform? The answer is simple: Happiness.
Google GOOG, -3.83% searches for the phrase “delete Facebook” were 97% correlated with searches for phrases such as “being happy” and “quotes about being happy,” according to research from Datatrek Research, a market insights firm. While more users are Googling queries related to happiness, people are also researching how to delete their Facebook accounts.
That link holds true for the past 14 years that Facebook has existed — and while it doesn’t prove that concerns about mental health are causing users to flee, it suggests a strong relationship between the two. “Deleting Facebook doesn’t necessarily make you happy or unhappy, but people who are searching for happiness also entertain the notion of coming off of social media as a part of that progress,” said Nicholas Colas, co-founder of Datatrek.
This is not to say that the revelations that Cambridge Analytica may have improperly gained access to and used up to 50 million users’ personal information hasn’t affected peoples thinking. As of Thursday, there were three times as many Google searches for “delete Facebook” than there were over the weekend. Related search queries included “Cambridge Analytica” and “Brian Acton,” the name of the Whatsapp co-founder who called for users to quit Facebook.
Still, much research has shown that social media can have a negative effect on users’ happiness and mental health. One study indicated that an increase in people’s Facebook use could significantly predict a decline in mental health outcomes. However, Facebook might not necessarily be the worst offender — though that social network can contribute to increased anxiety and depression, Instagram and Snapchat SNAP, +0.00% were even worse in that regard.
Interestingly though, web searches about other social networking platforms, including Twitter TWTR, -4.67% and Instagram, weren’t correlated strongly with searches related to happiness, Datatrek found. This, Colas argued, is a reflection of the important role Facebook now plays in people’s everyday lives.
“This is this culture’s version of watching television and talking to friends on the phone,” he said. “It has replaced so many other social activities.”
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There’s also a spike in “delete Facebook” searches every year in late December and early January, according to Google Trends, suggesting that people are considering giving up the network when they’re thinking about New Year’s resolutions.
But even then, Colas said that privacy isn’t necessarily the main factor driving users to consider deleting their Facebook accounts. Instead, it’s more a reflection of their political considerations, similar to many consumers’ protests against companies that sell firearms in the wake of the school shooting in Parkland, Fla.
Cambridge Analytica has ties to President Donald Trump’s 2016, and some Facebook users fear their data was used to help Trump win. “People are thinking, ‘Do I want to support a company that does things that not only doesn’t fit with where my data should, but doesn’t fit with who I am as a person?” he said.