Facebook makes people more depressed and insecure said a new study. Fro some this might not come as a surprise while for others, it will make them more resolute in limiting their time 'Facebooking.'
A new study conducted by a group of researchers from various universities said that Facebook has a great effect on people's emotions and well-being. This confirms previous studies that Facebook and other social media networking sites make people more insecure and lower their self-esteem because of self-comparison. Moreover, it also makes people addicted to the Internet.
The researchers said that unlike real-world social connections that produce positive impacts on a person's well-being, Facebook has the opposite effect, especially on the person's mental
. They said that those who have consistently used Facebook for one year showed a decrease in mental health. More so, constant liking other people's content and clicking links reduce physical health and life satisfaction.
They were able to arrive at this conclusion after applying three methodologies making this latest study unique than the others. The first methodology involved the examining three waves of data which occurred within a two-year period. Through this, the researchers were able to monitor that changes in social media use results in changes in well-being as well.
Second, they also gathered data from the people's Facebook accounts instead of interviewing them. Lastly, they compared the participants' online and real world social interactions.
The authors of the study said that although the negative effect is evident, they don't know how it happens. They also noted that the three activities - liking, posting, clicking on links - they mentioned having all the same negative results. Another significant result they observe was that these negative effects of Facebook on the general well-being is because of the quantity of time spent rather than on the quality.
With these observations, the researchers concluded that real-world interactions are way much better than online ones.
