Have you ever shut down your Facebook account, only to find yourself logging back on just a few hours laters or a week later? Breaking up is very obstinate to do, particularly when quitting Facebook permanently is really very tough. Is Facebook so addictive? To find out the reason behind this addiction, researchers from Cornell Information Science at Cornell University, USA have conducted a study. They have explored the factors that restrict users from logging off the giant social networking site permanently.

A survey was conducted by a team of researchers from Cornell University that took part in a Dutch project called ’99 Days of Freedom’. Surveys were assigned to participants on days 33, 66, and 99 of the project to assess participants’ moods during their Facebook-free period. Using the survey data provided by 99daysoffreedom.com, an online project campaign had encouraged participants and sent invites to give up Facebook for a period of 99 days or longer if they wish.

A sample of this data was then shared with the team at Cornell University, who converged in on participants who had signed up to quit Facebook, but who couldn’t quite resist the addiction to Facebook. Ultimately, they could not withstand the fascination of Facebook’s social network. From their analysis, the researchers concluded that there are actually four major factors that led people to log back on to the social network

Reasons Why You Can’t Quit Facebook?

Here are the top four reasons why you can’t quit Facebook permanently.

1. Perceived addiction

participants who felt that Facebook was addictive were more likely to go back, with one individual reporting that “In the first 10 days, whenever I opened up an internet browser, my fingers would automatically go to ‘f’”.

2. Privacy and surveillance

Participants who felt that Facebook was monitoring their activity were less likely to return to the site. However, those that used Facebook to manage others’ perceptions of them were more likely to go back.

3. Subjective mood

If participants were feeling positive, they were less likely to return.

4. Other social media

Participants who used other social media outlets, such as Twitter, were also less likely to return. The first reason is perceived addiction – those who feel that Facebook is addictive or habitual are more likely to revert, according to the group’s research.

In many of these cases, people reverted back to Facebook but modified their use, for instance, uninstalling the app from their phones, decreasing the count of friends on their account or restricting the amount of time spent on the platform.

Speaking on the findings, Science and Communication Researcher, Eric Baumer from Cornell University who co-authored the research said, “These results show just how difficult daily decisions about social media use can be. In addition to concerns over personal addiction, people are reluctant about corporations collecting, analyzing and potentially monetizing their personal information.”

However, he also added that “Facebook serves numerous important social functions, in some cases providing the only means for certain groups to keep in touch. These results highlight the complexities involved in people’s ongoing decisions about how to use, or not use, social media.”

The study was published earlier this month on December 3 in Social Media + Society. Not only 99daysoffreedom.com, many recent studies have peeped into the outcomes of Facebook use, exposing that over usage of Facebook can have an adverse influence on wellbeing.