Trump election scandal

ADDICTED TO THE ‘F’ KEY

French sociologist Nathalie NadaudAlbertini said that with Cambridge Analytica a line had been crossed even if “people are almost inured to their data being used for commercial gain.

“That information is being used in political campaigns is far more unsettling,” she said.

“Yet whether we like it or not, we are almost obliged to have social media accounts,” she said.

Nor can addiction be underplayed, insisted Professor Eric Baumer, of Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, whose 2015 study for Cornell University showed how many Facebook users wanting to quit still found themselves reaching for the “F” key when started their computers.

Those who did leave were often tempted back, he said.

“A lot people are going to make a big fuss about quitting now... Then you’ll see a negative backlash when their friends say, ‘How am I to get in touch with you?’” he said.

No other social media “has the same critical mass. However, that could change” and there were strong signs it was already changing with younger users.

The most consistent users are now aged between 40 and 60, Mr. Baumer said, while “younger users are likely to have an account that is deactivated or to have at least thought of deactivating it.

He was now studying a growing “latent resistance” to Facebook, which may end up with a “more thoughtful engagement with a panoply of different types of social media.

“The other problem is the opacity of social media conglomerates,” Mr. Baumer argued. “People say I don’t like Facebook so I use Instagram... not realizing Facebook also owns it.” —