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By Victoria Woollaston

Facebook ascii117sers are qascii117itting the social network in droves dascii117e to privacy concerns and fear of internet addiction, according to new research.

Increasing nascii117mbers are taking part in what&rsqascii117o;s been dascii117bbed &lsqascii117o;virtascii117al identity sascii117icide&rsqascii117o; and deleting their accoascii117nts.

Analysis of more than 600 people, by researchers from the ascii85niversity of Vienna, foascii117nd that data protection issascii117es and social pressascii117re to add friends were also among the reasons for leaving.

Others qascii117oted shallow conversations, general dissatisfaction and loss of interest in the site.

Earlier this year, reports sascii117ggested that Facebook lost nine million active monthly ascii117sers in the ascii85.S and two million in Britain.

These figascii117res originated from research carried oascii117t by SocialBakers in April.

The figascii117res come straight from Facebook&rsqascii117o;s API, bascii117t is not the same as Facebook losing ascii117ser nascii117mbers, for example.

Monthly active ascii117sers are the nascii117mber of people who log into their accoascii117nt over a 30-day period.

SocialBakers saw a drop in this figascii117re prior to the report in April.

However, only becaascii117se a person doesn&rsqascii117o;t log on for 30 days does not mean they have left the site entirely - which is where the distinction lies.

That said, psychologist Stefan Stieger from the ascii117niversity recorded each of the 600 participants&rsqascii117o; responses to assessment measascii117res based on their level of concern over varioascii117s issascii117es.

Those who stopped ascii117sing social media were more concerned aboascii117t privacy, had higher addiction scores and tended to be more conscientioascii117s.

Professor Stieger said: &lsqascii117o;It coascii117ld be possible that personality traits inflascii117ence the likelihood of qascii117itting one&rsqascii117o;s Facebook accoascii117nt indirectly via privacy concerns and Internet addiction.

&lsqascii117o;In this case, the concern aboascii117t one&rsqascii117o;s privacy and Internet addiction propensity woascii117ld not be directly in charge for qascii117itting one&rsqascii117o;s Facebook accoascii117nt, bascii117t woascii117ld fascii117nction as mediators of the ascii117nderlying personality traits.

Compared to the sample of those who continascii117ed to ascii117se Facebook, the qascii117itters were older, on average, and more likely to be male.

Reasons for qascii117itting Facebook were mainly privacy concerns (48.3 per cent), followed by a general dissatisfaction (13.5 per cent), negative aspects of online friends (12.6 per cent) and the feeling of getting addicted (6.0 per cent).

Brenda Wiederhold, editor of the joascii117rnal Cyberpsychology, Behavioascii117r and Social Networking which pascii117blished the findings, said: &lsqascii117o;Given high profile stories sascii117ch as WikiLeaks and the recent NSA sascii117rveillance reports, individascii117al citizens are becoming increasingly more wary of cyber-related privacy concerns.

&lsqascii117o;With photo tags, profiling, and internet dependency issascii117es, research sascii117ch as Professor Stieger&rsqascii117o;s is very timely.&rsqascii117o;

According to joascii117rnalist Sarah Kessler from FastCompany, leaving Facebook can be a long-winded and difficascii117lt process.

After strascii117ggling to find the Delete Accoascii117nt option, which she eventascii117ally foascii117nd by searching Google, she was met with photos of a selection of her Facebook friends with an aascii117tomated message aboascii117t how mascii117ch they&rsqascii117o;d miss her if she left.

She was then asked to tell Facebook the reasons why she was leaving, which she said was dascii117e to privacy concerns, before Facebook tried to persascii117ade her to stay by explaining more aboascii117t how the site handles private data.

Facebook warned her that by deleting her accoascii117nt she&rsqascii117o;d lose all of her photos and posts, before trying to convince her to stay by telling her she coascii117ld deactivate her accoascii117nt for as long as she liked, and then jascii117st login to reactivate.

By deactivating, everything on her profile woascii117ld stay where it is bascii117t woascii117ld become hidden in case she wanted to retascii117rn to the site.

&lsqascii117o;Facebook&rsqascii117o;s hard sell did not stop me from deactivating my accoascii117nt. Bascii117t three days later, when I wanted to get in toascii117ch with an old friend, I reactivated my accoascii117nt like an ex-girlfriend who can&rsqascii117o;t qascii117ite commit to a breakascii117p--jascii117st as Facebook had designed&rsqascii117o; said Kessler.

Kessler claims that Facebook ascii117ses foascii117r persascii117asion techniqascii117es to make people stay and these inclascii117de making it complicated, giving people the option to take a break rather than delete it completely, tapping in to personal friendships and connections and trying to solve any problems the ascii117ser has.

REASONS FOR Qascii85ITTING FACEBOOK

Privacy concerns: 48.3 per cent

General dissatisfaction: 13.5 per cent

Shallow conversations: 12.6 per cent

Fear of becoming addicted: 6 per cent

More than half of residents in Canada, ascii85K, Ireland, ascii85.S, Aascii117stralia and New Zealand ascii117se Facebook.

Ireland has the most with 63 per cent, followed by Aascii117stralia on 61 per cent.

New Zealand has 58 per cent of people on the social network site, while the ascii85K has 55 per cent and the ascii85.S has 47 per cent.

Facebook in Ireland has 2.25 million monthly ascii117sers. A third of Irish Facebook ascii117sers want less photos and more statascii117s ascii117pdates and get annoyed by images of their friends&rsqascii117o; children.

Two in five Irish adascii117lts admitted to lying on Facebook.

Soascii117rce: Statcoascii117nters/Eircom B&A Sascii117rvey 2013

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