Why do pre-service teachers quit Facebook? An investigation on 'quitters forever' and 'quitters for a while'

Facebook Quitting Questionnaire explained 52.5% of the variance in quitting.Quitting reasons were external factors, self-concealing, mechanics and usefulness.Temporary quitters regarded Facebook as more useful than permanent quitters.Semi-structured interviews supported the scale items.Instructional use and peer pressure urged students to use Facebook. Recent studies on online social networking have revealed many user characteristics while quitters have been addressed rarely. The current study investigated the reasons of quitting Facebook among 231 pre-service teachers. First, Facebook Quitting Questionnaire was created through a comprehensive literature review and expert opinions. The measure was validated through a principal components analysis, which explained 52.5% of the variance with 17 items and four components: External factors, self-concealing, mechanics and perceived usefulness. Then, temporary and permanent quitters were compared, which revealed that temporary quitters regarded FB as more useful in comparison to permanent quitters. Finally, follow-up interviews with 11 participants were conducted to probe in-depth. Interviews revealed similar factors underlying the quitting behavior. Confidence building among couples was a novel but significant predictor of quitting. On the other hand, participants felt obliged to have a Facebook account since either instructional Facebook use by the faculty or peer pressure urged them. Implications for further research were discussed accordingly.

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