research-article

Giving up Twitter for Lent: how and why we take breaks from social media

Author:

Sarita Yardi SchoenebeckAuthors Info & Claims

CHI '14: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

Pages 773 - 782

https://doi.org/10.1145/2556288.2556983

Published: 26 April 2014 Publication History

Abstract

Social media use is widespread, but many people worry about overuse. This paper explores how and why people take breaks from social media. Using a mixed methods approach, we pair data from users who tweeted about giving up Twitter for Lent with an interview study of social media users. We find that 64% of users who proclaim that they are giving up Twitter for Lent successfully do so. Among those who fail, 31% acknowledge their failure; the other 69% simply return. We observe hedging patterns (e.g. "I thought about giving up Twitter for Lent but"?) that surfaced uncertainty about social media behavior. Interview participants were concerned about the tradeoffs of spending time on social media versus doing other things and of spending time on social media rather than in "real life." We discuss gaps in related theory that might help reduce users' anxieties and open design problems related to designing systems and services that can help users manage their own social media use.

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Index Terms

Giving up Twitter for Lent: how and why we take breaks from social media
1. Human-centered computing

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cover image ACM Conferences

CHI '14: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

April 2014

4206 pages

ISBN:9781450324731

DOI:10.1145/2556288

General Chairs:
Matt Jones
Swansea University, Wales, UK
,
Philippe Palanque
Université Paul Sabatier, France
,
Program Chairs:
Albrecht Schmidt
University of Stuttgart, Germany
,
Tovi Grossman
Autodesk Research, Canada

Copyright © 2014 ACM.

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Published: 26 April 2014

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https://doi.org/10.38021/asbid.1482661
Yan YChen JWang HXu JGong S(2024)The mediating effect of social connectedness between internet gaming disorder and somatic symptoms in adolescents: a large sample cross−sectional studyBMC Psychiatry10.1186/s12888-024-06090-724:1Online publication date: 3-Oct-2024
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Mildner TSavino GPutze SMalaka R(2024)Finding a Way Through the Social Media Labyrinth: Guiding Design Through User ExpectationsProceedings of the International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia10.1145/3701571.3701605(157-171)Online publication date: 1-Dec-2024
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