Study reveals how social media can make you unhappy
A Happiness Research Institute study has found that people who don’t use social media feel happier than others.
The study involved 1095 Danish people who visited Facebook daily. One half continued to use social media while the other half stopped for a week.
At the end of the experiment, participants were asked to evaluate their happiness and life satisfaction. The group who hadn’t been on Facebook said they were more satisfied with their lives, with 88 per cent of the participants describing themselves as “happy” compared with 81 per cent from the group who had access to social media. 84 per cent of the first group also said they appreciated their lives compared with 75 per cent in the other group. Only 12 per cent who gave up social media described themselves as dissatisfied, compared with 20 per cent among those who continued using Facebook.
The results, however, don’t necessarily indicate that to be happier you have to give up Facebook.
Meik Wiking, CEO of Denmark-based Happiness Research Institute, attributed the results to people’s tendency to compare themselves to others on social media.
“Facebook distorts our perception of reality and of what other people’s lives really look like. We take in to account how we’re doing in life through comparisons to everyone else, and since most people only post positive things on Facebook, that gives us a very biased perception of reality,” he told The Local.
“If we are constantly exposed to great news, we risk evaluating our own lives as less good. There can also be positive benefits from Facebook and social media, but I think the real thing to always be aware of is the affect it has on our perception of reality.
“This constant flow of great news we see on Facebook only represents the top 10 per cent of things that happen to other people. It shouldn’t be used as the background for evaluating our own lives.”
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