Do you suffer from FOMO? Depressed by friends' wedding photos and parties from the night before? Now, there's a new study that say using Facebook can "undermine" one's sense of happiness and well-being.
The study found Facebook use could negatively impact how you feel "moment to moment" as well as how satisfied you feel overall.
Researchers from the University of Michigan surveyed 82 young adults, and asked them how frequently they used Facebook and their feelings. They did this for two weeks and they sent participants five text messages each day asking them to check in online. You can read the
entire report here.
"On the surface, Facebook provides an invaluable resource for fulfilling such needs by allowing people to instantly connect," the study reads. "Rather than enhancing well-being, as frequent interactions with supportive 'offline' social networks powerfully do, the current findings demonstrate that interacting with Facebook may predict the opposite result for young adults — it may undermine it."
Participants that frequently used Facebook were found to feel worse, both in short term and bigger picture satisfaction levels.
The study has some caveats of course. While the participants reported declines in happiness to register a direct negative correlation between Facebook use and life satisfaction, the declines were relatively minor.
What do you think?