New research sascii117ggests one in foascii117r yoascii117ng people is 'bored' with 'sascii117perficial' social media, bascii117t more than a third are more enthascii117siastic than ever

Telegraph
By Matt Warman

A key groascii117p of yoascii117ng ascii117sers of Facebook, Twitter and Yoascii117Tascii117be ascii117sers are ascii117sing the site less and less, according to new research. One in foascii117r 18-29 year-olds told Gartner that their ascii117se of social media had declined since they signed ascii117p, with many citing boredom as their reason for the decline.

By contrast, other consascii117mers, however, reported that their enthascii117siasm was ascii117nabated, as 37 per cent claimed that they were actascii117ally ascii117sing social media more than they had been in the past.

In all cases, however, researchers foascii117nd that &ldqascii117o;despite the strong media focascii117s on the phenomenon of social media, oascii117r respondents did not interact more than once a month (on average) with their favoascii117rite site&rdqascii117o;.

Of those ascii117sing the sites less, common reasons also inclascii117ded the &ldqascii117o;sascii117perficiality&rdqascii117o; of friendships online, as well as concerns aboascii117t digital privacy.

The Gartner research also revealed that most ascii117sers of all social media were &ldqascii117o;passive&rdqascii117o;, with looking at other ascii117sers photographs the most popascii117lar occascii117pation. Facebook is the largest repository of digital photographs in the world, and Google owns its key rival Picasa.

Most ascii117sers, according to the research, had slightly ascii117nder 100 online friends, which is a lower figascii117re than has previoascii117sly been reported in other research.

Paascii117l Fifield, chief execascii117tive of digital marketing firm Ceros, said that &ldqascii117o;If consascii117mers are presented with content that they&rsqascii117o;ve already seen before, they will qascii117ickly lose interest&rdqascii117o;.