Been feeling a little down lately? Maybe you just don’t seem to be your usual self. Have you wondered why that might be? According to a new study, it may just be the fault of Facebook.
The study, conducted by the Happiness Research Institute, compared a sample of 1,095 people in Denmark who were divided into two groups, half of whom continued using Facebook while the others stopped.
Why Facebook? Meik Wiking, HRI’s chief executive, remarked:
“We focused on Facebook because it is the social media that most people use across age groups.”
And the results? Well, after only a week, the people who hadn’t been on Facebook said they were more satisfied with their lives, with 88 percent of them describing themselves as “happy” compared with 81 percent from the second group.
Also, 84 percent said they appreciated their lives compared with 75 percent in the other group, and only 12 percent described themselves as dissatisfied, compared with 20 percent among those who continued using Facebook.
When the experiment concluded, those who had given up Facebook reported having a richer social life and fewer difficulties in concentrating.
The authors of the study noted:
“Instead of focusing on what we actually need, we have an unfortunate tendency to focus on what other people have.”
So here’s the bottom line: Facebook users are 39 percent more likely to feel less happy than non-users.
Looks like if we all want to be happier and not inferior to our Facebook friends and acquaintances, we should ditch Facebook and refuse to add to Mark Zuckerberg’s fortune.
Yeah, and good luck just quitting cold turkey. Most of us get antsy after being away from social media for more than an hour.
Zuckerberg wins again.
Featured image by Pexels, available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial license.
