Social media is an almost essential part of our lives now and there are people who just can’t take it out of their lives, because they are addicted whether they realize or not. Other than impacting the necessary daily activities of a person, social media seems to have another huge impact on our lives. A study at University of Innsbruck, Austria, reported – “expect to feel better after using Facebook, whereas in fact, they feel worse.”
The experiment was carried out by psychologists Christina Sagioglou and Tobias Greitemeyer. Their subjects were 123 Facebook users whom the scientists investigated how much time they spend on Facebook and a survey was done about their moods. The result was that the more time subjects spent on Facebook, more unhappy they were found.
Another experiment was conducted in which 263 subjects were split into three groups. One group was surveyed after spending 20 minutes on Facebook, another 20 minutes after spending time on Internet but not Facebook and the third one was surveyed without spending anytime on Facebook or Internet. This experiment had yielded some interesting results which also supported the previous result – the group who spent time on Facebook had a lower mood than any subjects of any other group.
Scientists explain the reason behind it being that the users felt they were wasting their time on a meaningless activity. Not only that but the depression escalates when people see their friends posting exciting, happy moments of their lives because users then constantly compare their lowlights to other people’s highlights.
The conclusion of study comes with an easily said, hard to be done advice – ‘Remove the social media from your life, the consequence of which will be a happy, full of life you.
- Image Credit: Pacific Standard