Bored Facebook Users

Bored Facebook Users, Is Facebook boring? For 34 percent of users of the social network polled by Reuters and Ipsos, the answer is a resounding “yes.” More than a third of respondents in the online poll said they were spending less time on Facebook than they did six months ago. Their chief complaint was that the site was “boring,” “not relevant” or “not useful,” according to Reuters.

The poll, taken of 1,032 Americans between May 31 and June 4, included people both with and without a Facebook account. Only about 20 percent said they did not have an account on the social network.

Two out of five respondents said they still log onto Facebook daily, and half said they spend the same amount of time there now as they did six months ago.

Ray Valdes, an*n*lyst with Gartner, an IT research and advisory firm, said Facebook is showing difficulty keeping users engaged for long periods of time.

“Facebook continuously has the challenge of Facebook fatigue, of the novelty factor wearing off, and therefore they have to introduce new kinds of interaction,” he told Reuters.

Among those new interactions are the controversial new “Timeline” format of displaying profile pages and the deal to acquire Instagram for $1 billion and integrate its features within Facebook.

The poll is troubling news for Facebook a month after the Menlo Park, Calif.-based tech giant filed a $16 billion IPO. The stock is down nearly 30 percent since its May 18 debut on the Nasdaq.

In fact, Facebook’s stock market performance is making 46 percent of the respondents to Reuters’ survey wary of investing in the market in the future.

Facebook’s stock market slide also led 44 percent to say they have a less favorable view of the social networking site. (International Business Times)