Almost 80 per cent of people want to quit social media – but are too scared

78 per cent of social media users want to quit, but are afraid of losing friends and posts.

A new study, carried out by Kaspersky Lab of 4,831 respondents, found that the vast majority of people have considered leaving social networks behind them. It also found that people are aware of their fixation and obsession with social platforms – 39 per cent of respondents think that they are wasting their time on social media. 30 per cent of respondents have considered quiting social media over concerns of being monitored by IT giants.

In spite of this negative perception of social media from a lot of people, they are compelled to stay. A majority (62 per cent) believe that they would lose contact with their friends if they left social networks. 21 per cent of respondents were less worried about their friends, but were afraid they would not be able to recover their digital memories – such as photos – once they had left a social network.

This study has served as the foundation for Kaspersky Lab to work on a solution to help people save their digital memories and cut the cord to social media platforms. The company’s new app, called FFForget, will allow people to back up all of their posts from social media networks and keep them in a safe, encrypted memory container. Think of it like a time capsule where you can keep a hold of that really profound facebook status you wrote when you were hung over after Steve’s stag do. 

Basically this app has been created with the intention of letting users leave any social network – whenvever they want – without losing out. 

Evgeny Chereshnev, Head of Social Media at Kaspersky Lab said: “Social networks can be a benefit or a hazard. If they are a benefit, it’s not our problem. We believe that every person has a right to freely decide which platforms to use or to leave at all times. True digital freedom is not a matter of having to make sacrifices. We want people to get back in the driving seat by being able to own an encrypted copy of all their digital memories at all times.

“With FFForget we want to create a solution which keeps people from being afraid of losing their memories to account damage or hacking attacks. And most importantly – people using the app would win back their right to quit any social network at any time without losing what belongs to them – their digital lives.” 

FFForget is set to launch in 2017. Interested users can register at ffforget.kaspersky.com to give feedback and influence the scope of the app. They will also get updates, insights and early access to the public beta when it will be available.

PCR’s Sector Spotlight on Security – in association with BullGuard – is running throughout November 2016 – click here for more articles