Quitting Facebook Makes You Happier, Study Says

For almost a decade, Facebook It is part of life for all of us. Many of us connect to this social network every day to chat with our contacts, post statuses or find out the latest news. Despite the fact that we spend many hours a week connected to this social network and it may seem entertaining to us, does it really make us happy? One study claims not.

The advancement of technology, the inclusion of social networks in our daily work and the number of options available to us present to spend hours and hours connected (smartphones, tablets, computers, etc.), is causing serious problems for the people. He FOMO syndrome, the nomophobia or the technostress are some examples, and, in recent years, psychologists have been recognizing different pathologies associated with new technologies: disorders that cause unhappiness.

Facebook is a showcase in which people show what they want to show

Just a few days ago, a friend told me how difficult it was for her to continue with her normal life, having left her partner after five years of relationship. To the pain he felt from having to get used to his new sentimental situation, now

was added to being connected 24 hours a day to social networks, which fed that feeling of sadness and unhappiness.

In his opinion: "It's hard for me to see how happy people appear to be (even if they're not), because it makes me feel worse." In social networks we try to show how we want to be and not how we really are, being able to reach perceive that the life of others is free of problems and is much more interesting and exciting than the our. This is precisely what Brunel University in London discovered, which states that projecting the happiness of the couple on a social network could indicate a low self-esteem and narcissism.

We talk about this topic in our article: "Happy couples" on Facebook hide low self-esteem issues. To read it, all you have to do is click on the link.

A Danish study claims that Facebook makes us unhappy

A study carried out by the Happiness Research Institute in Denmark claims that Facebook makes us unhappy. The researchers who separated 1,905 subjects into two groups, one that used the social network normally and another that was forced not to use the social network, found that the group participants, after a week without using Facebook, found themselves 55% less stressed.

Mike Wiking, CEO of the Happiness Research Institute in Copenhagen, explains: “We looked at different data related to the happiness, and one aspect that the participants always mentioned is that the comparison with other individuals caused them unhappiness". "On Facebook we are constantly bombarded with good news from others, but that's not always true." In addition, she adds: “This creates a Facebook world, where everyone shows their best version, a distorted image of themselves. So I wanted to know what would happen if Facebook users went an entire week without connecting.”

The study included participants of all ages.

Participants were between the ages of 16 and 76, and were surveyed before the study (and after) to find out their level of satisfaction, how active their social life was, how much they compared to others, and how hard it was for them to concentrate.

One of the participants, Stine Chen, 26, argues: “At first it was difficult, because Facebook has been a much of my life since I was a teenager, and many social activities are organized around this network social".

For Sophie Anne Dornoy, a 35-year-old woman, not connecting to Facebook for a week has also been a big challenge: “When I I would wake up, even before getting out of bed, I would open Facebook on my smartphone just to see if anything exciting had happened during the night. evening". The fear of missing out is known as “FOMO Syndrome”.

Disconnecting from Facebook improves concentration

For this study, Dornoy deleted the Facebook app from his mobile device and blocked the page on his computer to avoid the temptation to log on. “After several days, I noticed that I was doing my tasks in less time and was using my time more productively. I also noticed a certain calm from not being connected to Facebook all the time.

After an entire week offline, the subjects in the group who refrained from using Facebook showed levels higher levels of life satisfaction and concentration, as well as feeling less alone, more sociable, and less stressed.

Chen explains, "My roommates and I were talking more because we weren't connected to Facebook. For his part, Dornoy noticed that his phone conversations were longer and were involving more members of his family and friends: It made me feel good to know that the world doesn't end on Facebook and people are able to keep in touch with you if they want”,

The next step for researchers is assess how long the positive effects of abstinence to Faceboo lastwhat. Wilking himself concludes: "I would like to investigate it for a year, but we will have to see how many volunteers want to go a year without connecting."