CBS: A new study shows that Facebook makes people feel connected, but Facebook use actually predicts a decline in happiness and well-being.
CBS: A new study shows that Facebook makes people feel connected, but Facebook use actually predicts a decline in happiness and well-being.
The study used 82 young adults, all of whom had smartphones and Facebook accounts. The researchers then used experience-sampling to measure how the users think, felt and behaved by texting them at random times five days a week for two weeks. Each text contained a link to an online survey with five questions, including how the Facebook user felt at that moment, how worried he/she was and how lonely the user felt at that time.
“On the surface, Facebook provides an invaluable resource for fulfilling the basic human need for social connection,” said U-M social psychologist Ethan Kross, lead author of the article and a faculty associate at the U-M Institute for Social Research (ISR).”But rather than enhance well-being, we found that Facebook use predicts the opposite result – it undermines it.”
