It was always a matter of time before Facebook users started questioning how much time they were expending online, and now the questions have started coming thick and fast from the group of people Facebook relies on most – the millenials.

Mashable approached a sample of millenials in an attempt to discover why so many of them were ready to cut ties with the social media giant. This is what they had to say.

1. It’s just too overwhelming

To many people, going onto Facebook means dealing with a lot of digital ‘noise’. Between the hundreds of ads, instagram posts, twitter posts and embedded videos, it’s tough to actually find time or space for real socialisation. 23-year-old Facebook user Tom Barefoot, a graduate student at the University of Akron, says that:

The only people I really care about are, like, 10 of my friends. Why do I need all this other social media?

2. To hide incriminating evidence from prospective employers

Were all acutely aware of this one. One photo of you funneling a beer and its curtains for your future job prospects. Software engineer Albert Tackie, 26, didn’t want to take any chances:

I left years ago, primarily so I couldn’t have Facebook working against me as I was job hunting. My friends made my Wall far too incriminating, and it made me nervous. Now I just won’t go back because I’m already free.

3. To hide from breakups

Many single guys will be all too familiar with those feelings of resentment after break up, when you have front row seats to your ex’s brand new single life, splashing vibrantly across your screen in high-res photos. Laekyn Sanders, 21-year-old undergraduate student at Seton Hill University, is one person who simply decided to ignore all that:

I was going through a really bad breakup, and was tired of people asking me via Facebook why things ended with the guy I was dating. It got distracting enough to the point that I would find myself wanting to talk about it to those people, and it took me away from focusing on studying, which made my grades drop really quickly.

4. To avoid anxieties

It’s hard enough having to deal with getting laid off in reality – but nowadays one has to lead a double life, and that means dealing with double anxiety when you login to Facebook. For example, one feels pressured to make one’s employment status ‘Facebook official’ – but why go through that if you actually don’t have to?

There are also issues with self-confidence, due to you having to stare at the posts of more popular people, who seem to be doing a lot more cool things than you are. Anna, 24 , a journalist, agrees:

I would compare myself and my own somewhat ‘nerdy’ (but absolutely lovable) friend group to others in my college, who seemed to have tons of fun being out and about, kept posting inside jokes and affectionate posts. You know, the usual stuff, pretty normal at hindsight, but I guess it bothered me somewhat that my friends never did that.

5. You’re having an existential crisis

For some, Facebook just ignites the philosophical fire, and raises questions about the nature of existence, morality and free will.  Max Zell, 23, laments his girlfriends failed attempts to break ties with Facebook:

Sometimes it’s tied into an angsty statement about the futility of social media. Sometimes it’s a statement idealizing hermitage. I think sometimes it’s just a straight up panic of ‘IS THIS A DIGITAL REPRESENTATION OF ME?! THIS ISNT ME. I’M ME. THERE CAN’T BE MORE THAN ONE ME. I MUST DESTROY THIS.’

[Source : Mashable]