The purpose of Facebook is to connect users with their friends, keep them up to date on what's happening with relatives who live far away and to make new friends. It sounds all good and fun, however mounting research says Facebook leaves users feel depressed and miserable with their own lives.
A study by researchers at the University of Michigan is adding to the stack of studies that say Facebook makes its users feel bad about themselves, according to the study published Wednesday in PLOS One. The study followed 82 young Facebook users and found they wound up feeling worse about themselves after two weeks, and their moment-to-moment mood darkened the more they browsed the social platform.
As well as monitoring their use of social media, the participants all took part in an online survey five times a day, which measured their emotional well-being.
Questions included 'How do you feel right now?' and 'How much have you used Facebook since the last time we asked?'.
They also asked the volunteers to rate their level of life satisfaction at the start and the end of the two-week study. Researcher discovered their happiness levels declined the more they used Facebook.
"We were able to show on a moment-to-moment basis throughout the day how people's mood fluctuated depending on their Facebook usage," said University of Michigan social psychologist Ethan Kross, lead author of the study.
"We measured lots and lots of other personality and behavioral dimensions, like, for example, frequency of Facebook use," Kross said. "But none of the factors that we assessed influenced the results. The more you used Facebook, the more your mood dropped."
Researchers concluded that the more time individuals spend on the social networking site, the worse they subsequently felt.
"Would engaging in any solitary activity similarly predict declines in well-being? We suspect that they would not because people often derive pleasure from engaging in some solitary activities (e.g., exercising, reading)," the report said.
"Supporting this view, a number of recent studies indicate that people's perceptions of social isolation (i.e. how lonely they feel) are a more powerful determinant of well-being than objective social isolation."
Colloquially, this theory is known as FOMO - Fear Of Missing Out - a side effect of seeing friends and family sitting on beaches or having fun at parties while you are on a computer.
