Oversharers, beware. The University of Michigan this week published a study that found using Facebook can make people feel worse about themselves. And it’s not just when your requests for extra lives in Candy Crush go unheeded.
Researchers sent 82 test subjects five text messages per day, between 10 am and midnight, at random intervals throughout the day. The text messages linked the subjects to surveys, where they answered questions about how they felt, how lonely they were and how worried they were. They were also quizzed on how much direct contact (either face-to-face or by phone) they’d had with others since their previous survey, and how much Facebook contact they’d had in the same time frame.
The results showed that the more people used Facebook, the worse they felt afterwards. As well as that, higher overall Facebook use led to lower overall life satisfaction (as demonstrated in this excellent graph, which uses the scientific measure of “Frowny Faces”).
“The human need for social connection is well established, as are the benefits that people derive from such connections.
On the surface, Facebook provides an invaluable resource for fulfilling
such needs by allowing people to instantly connect”, the study said. “Rather than
enhancing well-being, as frequent interactions with supportive “offline”
social networks powerfully do, the current findings demonstrate that
interacting with Facebook may predict the opposite result for young
adults—it may undermine it.“
The study has essentially quantified Fear Of Missing Out – being on Facebook makes you feel lonely, while actually being alone doesn’t necesarily have the same effect. Future studies are planned to measure the amount of pleasure subjects derived from
stalking that bitch Jenny who stole our boyfriend in year 9, and finding
out she got really fat.
