How much would it take for you to quit social media? Would you do it for $50? $100? Maybe you’re so sick of all the pseudo-popularity contest platforms you’ve already quit, for nothing. Well, if you were waiting for an incentive, Facebook just might give it to you soon.
Starting this month, the Mark Zuckerberg-founded behemoth is offering select users $120 to deactivate their Facebook and Instagram accounts ahead of the Nov. 3 presidential election. Why? To study how social media impacts voting by analyzing 200 – 400K participants.
“Representative, scientific samples of people in the US will be selected and invited to participate in the study. Some potential participants will see a notice in Facebook or Instagram inviting them to take part in the study,” Facebook said. “Study samples will be designed to ensure that participants mirror the diversity of the US adult population, as well as users of Facebook and Instagram.”
Data scientists independent of Facebook will carry out the research.
“To continue to amplify all that is good for democracy on social media, and mitigate against that which is not, we need more objective, dispassionate, empirically grounded research,” Facebook said.
Unfortunately, the results of the study won’t be available until next year.
If you’ve been looking for a push to give up your social media obsession, here’s hoping you are one of the lucky thousands to receive a notification on one of the sites. As political misinformation ramps up to an all-time high prior to election day, we can’t think of a better time to go off the ‘book and the ‘gram.
Cover Photo: SOPA Images / Contributor (Getty Images)
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