Themes

Examples

Peer pressure to join Facebook

They wore me down…all my friends just kept bugging me to use Facebook and so I just kind of gave up in the end. (Participant 3)

My friends kept asking me to join. They said, “It’s great. We can talk to each other and keep in touch.” At that time, I was young and I felt like I was kind of pushed into joining. (Participant 4)

Facebook as an escape Facebook offers relief from boredom Facebook offers distraction from unpleasant tasks

…like sometimes if I’m just waiting around or sitting around doing nothing, I get bored and it gives me something to do. (Participant 1)

Facebook is a way for me to have like a break, between studying and like procrastinating if I’m not into what I’m doing. …when I think about it, I think that I probably use it more as a distraction from stuff that I know I need to do, but I just don’t want to. (Participant 2)

Critical of other users Excessive users referred to in derogatory terms Poor behavior of others on Facebook There is something wrong with people who share too much personal information on Facebook

Well, it’s depressing that they’re using Facebook as a source of constant entertainment and I don’t want to be like that. (Participant 2)

…if I’m in a lecture or something, I can see students with their phones down beneath the desk and they’re checking Facebook all the time instead of listening to the lecture and it bothers me. Things like that bother me. I’m not like that. (Participant 4)

…they get really bitchy (on Facebook)… Like the practice of trolling and finding things to complain about or like, harass them about stuff they’ve said on Facebook constantly. (Participant 3)

I’ve got one friend who…she’s got a lot of content that’s a bit attacking and she does label people. I never get involved in it, but I feel that if I “delete” her, I’ll then be the victim of her wrath, so it’s kind of like, “Better the devil you know.” I’ll keep her as a friend, rather than delete her and end up as the victim in the end. (Participant 1)

I have friends that put everything that happens to them on Facebook, like if they buy something new or if they are eating something, like everything they do, they put on Facebook and I don’t think that’s right. (Participant 4)

…I have this one friend who has like all her photos and all her messages available to everybody and that seems pretty extreme to me. I’d never be that person, ever. (Participant 1)

Cynicism towards Facebook Facebook is an environment for socially dangerous gossip Suspicious of what Facebook may do with their individual information.

I don’t like that there’s stuff that people find out through the grapevine. I would describe that like, a little bit about Facebook would be like that “high school culture” like gossiping about other people, like, that’s kind of rife on Facebook. (Participant 1)

…something that I don’t like about Facebook is that it kind of seems like they keep track of what you do…like there are certain ads that seem to come up as a result of what I’ve put on there or something…it kind of creeps me out. (Participant 2)

…people always ask you for information; like your date of birth, what school do you go to? Things like that, and you never know what they might do with that information. Like maybe they could sell your information or something like that. (Participant 4)