A new study, published last week, shows that using the Facebook social network would have a negative impact on our mood and well-being.
Researchers from the University of Michigan and Leuven University of Belgium have attempted to measure the impact of Facebook on the mood of users over time. For 14 days, 82 American students around twenty years of age were subjected to a study to evaluate the emotional and cognitive aspects of the sense of well-being. The study, conducted by Dr. Ethan Ross in the U.S. and Phillipe Verduyn in Belgium was published by the Public Library of Science.
Every day, these young people have received five SMS to fill an online form in order to learn their level of worry, anxiety or loneliness, their use of social networking site and interactions with their friends through it. And the result is clear: “The more subjects are using Facebook, the more their subjective sense of well-being deteriorates,” notes Philippe Verduyn, co-author of the study.
Young people who spend time on the social network would feel unhappy and lonely and those who have physical contact would be happier. The researchers stress that the discomfort caused by the excessive use of Facebook would be independent of the number of friends you have or your self-esteem.
“This is a result of critical importance because it goes to the very heart of the influence that social networks may have on people’s lives,” said John Jonides, a co-author of the study and cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Michigan.
“It was not the case that Facebook use served as a proxy for feeling bad or lonely,” said Dr. Kross, a psychologist at the University of Michigan.
“This is the advantage of studying Facebook use and well-being as dynamic processes that unfold over time,” said Phillipe Verduyn, who added: “It allows us to draw inferences about the likely causal sequence of Facebook use and well-being.”
“This study is methodologically very well done, but we must be cautious about the conclusions: mood or well-being of an individual can not depend on a single parameter,” warns Yann Leroux, PhD in psychology questioned by Le Figaro. One billion Facebook users are not all depressed.
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