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the death of facebook?
seems people have grown weary of this toy, the CB radio of the new millennium
Facebook fatigue sets in for 100,000 Brits: Users bored with site deactivate accounts amid privacy fears
By Daniel Bates
Last updated at 9:46 PM on 13th June 2011
- 'Facebook fatigue' blamed for drop in users
- Social network with 600m users has been rocked by privacy scares
The Facebook phenomenon could finally be coming off the boil as members in the UK and America abandon the site.
In a widespread bout of 'Facebook fatigue' 100,000 British users deactivated their accounts last month, tiring of the social network and fearing for their privacy.
Six million people also logged off for good in America as the site seemed to reach saturation point.
Logging off for good: Computer users concerned for their privacy are choosing to shut down the Facebook accounts. (Pictured posed by model)
The rate of growth worldwide has now slowed for a second month in a row and Facebook is relying on developing countries to reach its goal of one billion active users.
The figures suggest that there could be a 'natural limit' for Facebook's saturation and prompted speculation on blogs that, like its failing rival MySpace, the website could one day 'sputter into oblivion'.
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Earlier this year executives announced that the number of Facebook accounts held in the UK had reached 30 million, around half the population of the country.
The milestone was an increase of four million from last July and represented the highest saturation of any country in Europe.
Worldwide reach: The map displays links between Facebook friends as lights on a deep blue background
Now however things appear to be changing and last month more than 100,000 in the UK stopped using the website.
In the U.S. there was a similar story as Facebook lost about six million users from the start of May to the end of month, from 155.2 million to 149.4 million.
In Canada the drop was about 1.5 million users, while Russia and Norway saw falls of more than 100,000 users.
Worldwide Facebook is still expanding and has around 600million users, off the back of strong growth in countries like Mexico and Brazil.
But according to Eric Eldon, of Inside Facebook, which obtained the figures through analysis of the company's advertising tools, there is a point at which the site can no longer grow once it has established itself in a country.
The 52nd richest man on Earth: Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has a personal fortune of £8.2billion
'By the time Facebook reaches around 50 per cent of the total population in a given country ... growth generally slows to a halt,' he said.
Internet psychologist Graham Jones said Facebook users would suffer the same kind of 'fatigue' that comes when people get bored of trying anything that is new.
'People get terribly excited about something new and after a while the novelty wears off,' he said.
'Even if it is a new TV series everybody thinks it is fantastic at the beginning and things tail off.
'In all aspects of our lives we are addicted to novelty so Facebook should be the same.
'The reason it is so compelling is that it is the first big website that allows two-way communication between people.
'Humans are social beings and up until about five years ago we did not have a website for direct communication in this way'.
Facebook has also been beset by a string of concerns over its users' privacy, the most recent of which was over its facial recognition technology which commentators branded 'sinister'.
In response to the figures about falling traffic vtchuck2000 wrote on technology blog CNET that he dumped Facebook when he became aware of the 'alarming details it leaks to the public'.
Privacy fears: Features like 'tag suggestions', where facial recognition algorithms automatically scan photos to suggest who is in them, have spooked users
Facebook was started in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg in his bedroom at Harvard University.
It has gone on to become the largest social networking site in the world and made him the 52nd richest man on Earth with a personal fortune of £8.2billion at the age of 27.
In 2008 it had approximately 100million users and has grown to 600million in just three years.
A spokeswoman for the company said: 'From time to time, we see stories about Facebook losing users in some regions.
'Some of these reports use data extracted from our advertising tool, which provides broad estimates on the reach of Facebook ads and isn't designed to be a source for tracking the overall growth of Facebook.
'We are very pleased with our growth and with the way people are engaged with Facebook. More than 50 per cent of our active users log on to Facebook in any given day.'
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