Facebook Looking to Pay Users to Deactivate Accounts for a Study

Looks like Facebook is ready to pay up to anyone willing to deactivate their account for a few days – but before you click the “logout” button, there is a catch.

Fox5 reports that Facebook is looking to pay some people to deactivate their accounts for a period of time as part of its effort “to better understand the impact of Facebook and Instagram on society during the 2020 election.”

Facebook announced a partnership with over 15 independent researchers to study the role its platforms have on attitudes and behaviors during the elections.

The social media powerhouse had this to say in a blog posted a few weeks ago:

“We need to better understand whether social media makes us more polarized as a society, or if it largely reflects the divisions that already exist; if it helps people to become better informed about politics, or less; or if it affects people’s attitudes towards government and democracy, including whether and how they vote.”

It’s refreshing to hear that Facebook (which also owns Instagram) will be doing a little self-reflection, because in all honesty, how many people in your life DON’T have a Facebook or Instagram account? It would be ignorant of these platforms to think they don’t have a hand in shaping the way people view the world. I commend Facebook for diving a little further and seeing how far their hand actually reaches.

To complete their research, “representative, scientific” samples of U.S. residents will be selected to participate in the study, with some participants being asked to completely halt their use of the apps. Liz Bourgeois, Facebook’s director of strategic response communications, confirmed on Twitter participants will be compensated.

The message from Facebook says that “your account would be deactivated for either one week or six weeks.

If I were chosen to participate, I would love to, and my price tag is fairly low. I’m getting paid, so I’m cool. Michael Rock, on the other hand, warned “give me at least a hundred bucks a week, or forget it.”

So, if you were asked to participate, what would you do?