It is used by millions of people to stay in touch with friends and family.
But far from brightening their day, Facebook could be making its users more unhappy.
Scientists have found the more time individuals spend on the social networking site, the worse they subsequently feel.
Scientists have found the more time individuals spend on the social networking site Facebook, the worse they subsequently feel
More than one in three Britons use Facebook every day, with 24 million logging on to share their latest goings on.
‘On the surface, Facebook provides an invaluable resource for fulfilling the basic human need for social connection,’ said lead researchers Dr Ethan Kross, a psychologist at the University of Michigan.
‘But rather than enhance well-being, we found that Facebook use predicts the opposite result - it undermines it.’ Research carried out earlier this year at the University of Chester suggested Facebook friends are no substitute for the real thing.
It found people are happier and laugh 50 per cent more when talking face-to-face with friends or via webcam than when they use social networking sites.
And the current study backed these findings, with participants who had direct interactions with other people feeling better over time.
In contrast, the more individuals used Facebook during the period, the greater the reduction in their life satisfaction levels.
‘This is a result of critical importance because it goes to the very heart of the influence that social networks may have on people’s lives,’ said co-author John Jonides, a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Michigan.
The research, published in the journal Public Library of Science ONE, looked at the browsing habits of 82 young adults, all of whom had smartphones and Facebook accounts.
More than one in three Britons use Facebook every day, with 24 million logging on to share their latest goings on
As well as monitoring their use of social media, the participants all took part in an online survey five times a day, which measured their emotional well-being.
Questions included ‘How do you feel right now?’ and ‘How much have you used Facebook since the last time we asked?’.
They also asked the volunteers to rate their level of life satisfaction at the start and the end of the two-week study. Researcher discovered their happiness levels declined the more they used Facebook.
The reason for the drop in life satisfaction remains unclear, as participants were not more likely to use the social network when unhappy.
‘It was not the case that Facebook use served as a proxy for feeling bad or lonely,’ Dr Kross said.
Further research will now be carried out to understand why time spent on social media can lower moods.
‘This is the advantage of studying Facebook use and well-being as dynamic processes that unfold over time,’ said researcher Philippe Verduyn, from the University of Leuven in Belgium.
‘It allows us to draw inferences about the likely causal sequence of Facebook use and well-being.’ In April, a study by the University of Oxford found couples who communicate using Facebook could be putting a strain on their relationship.
Psychologists found husbands and wives who kept in touch using social media had less satisfying marriages.
Dr Bernie Hogan, from Oxford Internet Institute, suggested marital disharmony could be triggered by the stress and time pressure of constantly maintaining so many different threads of communication.
*So folks, what do you think about this research? What experience do you have in this regards...Do you feel better or worse when you spend so much time chatting away with friends on facebook?
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