Study Shows, Facebook Lurking Makes You Miserable

Another scientific study has proven the blatantly obvious – Facebook lurking makes you miserable! Surprise!

Psych. Its common knowledge that lurking on social media for hours on end is in no way beneficial to our well being, but us being the self destructive millennial generation that we are, WE DO IT ANYWAYS! The question is: is it just a feeling that is just as recognizable to many of us, or is there some science behind it?

Facebook “lurking” was found by the University of Copenhagen, along with the regular use of various other social media platforms, to harm emotional well-being and overall satisfaction with life. The study discovered that simply taking a break from social media significantly and positively affects your overall well-being.

The team conducted a week-long experiment with 1,095 participants in Denmark in late 2015, in which participants were divided into two groups; one where participants used Facebook as usual, while the other group withheld social media use for one week. Upon comparing the two groups, researchers concluded that the break improved their well-being in two aspects: positive life satisfaction and positive emotions.

If you’re a regular degular shmegular Facebook/social media user like, I don’t know … every millennial ever, and are concerned that your social media habits are genuinely detrimental to your health and you have to log off all social media ASAP, the researchers urge you to chill tf out homie. In fact, they say making adjustments in the amount of time you spend on social media could be enough to bring positive change:

To make things clear, if one is a heavy Facebook user, one should use Facebook less to increase one’s well-being. And if one tends to feel envy when on Facebook, one should avoid browsing the sections (or specific friends) on Facebook causing this envy. And if one uses Facebook passively, one should reduce this kind of behavior. Due to habits, practicalities, and potential “forecasting errors,”8 it may be difficult to change one’s way of using Facebook. If this is the case, one should consider quitting Facebook for good.

A past study found that, while people think they’ll feel better after using Facebook, people actually feel worse. Researchers suggest that this negative reaction may be the result of having wasted time. Surprise pt.2! Another study done by the Lancaster University in England analyzed studies from 14 countries to better understand the connection between social media use and depression. Researchers noted that the “relationship between online social networking and symptoms of depression may be complex and associated with multiple psychological, social, behavioural and individual factor.” It is natural human behavior for one to want to feel good after everything they do, when in comes to Facebook or any social media for that matter, try using it in moderation (trust me, I know its hard.) so you can avoid getting caught up in all the toxic yet inevitable comparisons we are bound to make with something we see online. Realistically, what we see online is almost never the whole truth.