Stopping Using Facebook Makes You Happier, Study Says
For almost a decade, Facebook It is part of the lives of all of us. Many of us connect daily to this social network to chat with our contacts, post statuses or find out the latest news. Although we spend many hours a week connected to this social network and we may find it entertaining, Does it really make us happy? One study states that no
The advancement of technology, the inclusion of social networks in our daily tasks and the number of options that are presented to us to spend hours and hours connected (smartphones, tablets, computers, etc.), is causing serious problems for people. FOMO Syndrome, Nomophobia or Technostress are some examples, and, in recent years, Psychologists have been recognizing different pathologies associated with new technologies: disorders that cause unhappiness.
Facebook is a showcase in which people show what they want to show
Just a few days ago, a friend told me how difficult it was for her to continue with her normal life after having left her partner after five years of relationship. To the pain she felt from having to get used to her new sentimental situation, now This was combined with being connected 24 hours a day to social networks, which fueled that feeling of sadness and unhappiness
In his opinion: “It is difficult for me to see how happy people appear to be (even if they are not), because it makes me feel worse.” On social networks we try to show how we want to be and not how we really are, and we may come to perceive that the lives of others are free of problems and are much more interesting and exciting than ours. This is precisely what Brunel University in London discovered, which states that projecting the couple’s happiness on a social network could indicate low self-esteem and narcissism.
We talk about this topic in our article: “Happy couples” on Facebook hide problems of low self-esteem. To read it you just have to click the link.
A Danish study claims that Facebook makes us unhappy
A study carried out by the Happiness Research Institute in Denmark claims that Facebook makes us unhappy The researchers who separated 1,905 subjects into two groups, one that used the social network normally and another that was forced not to use the social network, found that the participants in the group, after a week without using Facebook, were 55% less stressed.
Mike Wiking, CEO of the Happiness Research Institute in Copenhagen, explains: “We analyzed different data related to happiness, and one aspect that participants always mentioned was that comparison with other individuals made them unhappiness.” “On Facebook we are constantly bombarded with good news from others, but that is not always true.” Furthermore, he adds: “This creates a Facebook world, where everyone shows their best version, a distorted image of themselves. So I wanted to know what would happen if Facebook users went an entire week without connecting.”
The study included participants of all ages
The participants were between 16 and 76 years old, and were surveyed before the study (and after) to find out their level of satisfaction, how active their social life was how much they compared themselves to others, and how hard it was for them to concentrate.
One of the participants, Stine Chen, 26, argues: “At first it was complicated, because Facebook has been a big part of my life since I was a teenager, and many social activities are organized around this social network.”
For Sophie Anne Dornoy, a 35-year-old woman, it has also been a great challenge not to connect to Facebook for a week: “When I woke up, even before getting out of bed, I would open Facebook on my smartphone just to see if something exciting had happened. overnight”. The fear of missing out is known as “FOMO Syndrome.”
Disconnecting from Facebook improves concentration
For this study, Dornoy deleted the Facebook app from his mobile device and blocked the page on his computer to avoid the temptation to log in. “After several days, I noticed that I was doing my tasks in less time and using the time more productively. I also noticed a certain calm from not being connected to Facebook all the time.”
After an entire week without being online, the subjects in the group who abstained from using Facebook showed higher levels of life satisfaction and concentration, in addition to feeling less lonely, more sociable and less stressed.
Chen explains: “My roommates and I talked more because we weren’t connected to Facebook. For his part, Dornoy noticed that his conversations on the phone were longer and he had them with more members of his family and friends: It made me “It feels good to know that the world does not end on Facebook and people are able to stay in touch with you if they want,”
The next step for researchers is evaluate how long the positive effects of Facebook abstinence last k Wilking himself concludes: “I would like to investigate it for a year, but we will have to see how many volunteers want to go a year without connecting.”
