--- title: "Study: Quitting Facebook Makes You Less Politically Polarized" description: "Researchers found that quitting Facebook will make you spend more time with family and friends, be less politically polarized, but know less about the news." date: "2019-01-31" modified: "2019-01-31" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/study-quit-facebook-less-politically-polarized" categories: - "Future Society" tags: - "data" - "facebook" - "privacy" - "the digest" --- # Study: Quitting Facebook Makes You Less Politically Polarized ![Researchers found that quitting Facebook will make you spend more time with family and friends, be less politically polarized, but know less about the news.]() *\Image: Tag Hartman-Simkins\* ## Quitting Facebook There are plenty of reasons to give Facebook the boot, from [privacy]() to concerns about [political manipulation](). But according to a [new study](), there may be further benefits to quitting Facebook. Researchers from Stanford University and New York University [found that deactivating]() Facebook helped some users reduce their online activity, increase offline activities including socializing with family and friends, and reduce political polarization. ## Valuable Data The study found a randomized sample of 2,844 users through Facebook display ads, offering about half of them $102 — roughly the value of your data to Facebook — in return for deactivating their Facebook profiles for four weeks, starting right before the November 2018 midterm elections and ending shortly after. A control group was not compensated. The results are encouraging: the participants that deactivated their accounts freed up an average of one additional hour a day. Some users used that time to watch more TV or spend time with family and friends. But the group who deactivated was also "less likely to say they follow news about politics or the President, and less able to correctly answer factual questions about recent news events," according to the paper. ## Politically Charged While we have to take these results with a grain of salt — the midterm elections were a particularly charged time politically — they aren't surprising either. After all, we already knew that spending time with loved ones will lead to healthier and happier lives. Does the good outweigh the bad when it comes to Facebook? That entirely depends on your definition of good — we've got [plenty of evidence]() of the bad. READ MORE: [Here’s how you’ll feel if you quit Facebook for a month]() \[*MIT Technology Review*\] ***More on Facebook: [Facebook Got Busted Paying Teenagers $20 a Month for Private Data]()*** ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()