Stop using Facebook makes you happier, says a study
For almost a decade, Facebook it is part of the life of all of us. Many of us connect to this social network every day to chat with our contacts, publish states or get the latest news. Although we spend many hours a week connected to this social network and it may seem entertaining, Does it really make us happy? A study says that .
The advancement of technology, the inclusion of social networks in our daily work and the number of options that are presented to us to spend hours and hours connected (smartphones, tablets, computers, etc.), is causing serious problems for people. FOMO Syndrome, Nomophobia or Technosthress 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 complicated it was to continue with her normal life to have left her partner after five years of relationship. To the pain he felt at having to get used to his new sentimental situation, now it was joined by being connected 24 hours a day to social networks, which fed that feeling of sadness and unhappiness .
In his opinion: "I can not see how happy people seem to be (even though they are 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 perceive that the life of others is free of problems and is much more interesting and exciting than ours. Precisely this is what Brunel University in London discovered, which states that projecting the happiness of the couple into a social network could indicate low self-esteem and narcissism.
On this topic we talk in our article: "Happy couples" on Facebook hide problems of low self-esteem. To read it you only have to click on the link.
A Danish study says that Facebook makes us unhappy
A study carried out by the Happiness Reasearch Insitute in Denmark affirms that Facebook makes us unhappy . The researchers who separated 1,905 subjects into two groups, one that used the social network normally and one that was forced not to use the social network, found that the participants of the group, after a week without using Facebook, were 55% less stressed.
Mike Wiking, CEO of the Happiness Research Institute in Copenhagen, explains: "We analyzed different data related to happiness, and one aspect that participants always mentioned was that the comparison with other individuals caused them unhappiness." "On Facebook we are constantly being bombarded with the good news from others, but that is not always true." In addition, he adds: "This creates a Facebook world, where everyone shows their best version, a distorted image of themselves. Therefore, I wanted to know what would happen if Facebook users spent a whole week without connecting. "
The study had participants of all ages
The participants were between 16 and 76 years old, and they were surveyed before the study (and after) to find out their level of satisfaction, how active their social life was how much they compared with others, and what it cost them to concentrate.
One of the participants, Stine Chen, 26, argues: "At first it was complicated, because Facebook has been a big part of my life since I was a teenager, and many social activities are organized around this social network."
For Sophie Anne Dornoy, a 35-year-old woman, it has also been a great challenge not to connect to Facebook for a week: "When I woke up, even before I got out of bed, I opened Facebook on my smartphone just to see if something exciting had happened overnight". The fear of missing something is known as "FOMO syndrome".
Disconnecting from Facebook improves concentration
For this study, Dornoy deleted the Facebook application of his mobile device and blocked the page on his computer to avoid the temptation to connect. "After several days, I noticed that I did my homework in less time and used time more productively. I also noticed a certain calm because I was not connected to Facebook all the time. "
After a whole week without being connected, the subjects of the group that abstained from using Facebook showed higher levels of satisfaction in life and concentration, in addition to feeling less lonely, more sociable and less stressed.
Chen explains: "My roommates and I talked more about not being connected to Facebook." Dornoy noticed that his conversations over the phone were longer and he made them to more members of his family and friends: feel good knowing that the world does not end on Facebook and people are able to be in touch with you if they want ",
The next step for researchers is to assess how long the positive effects of abstinence to Faceboo last k . Wilking himself concludes: "I would like to investigate it for a year, but we will have to see how many volunteers want to spend a year without connecting."
