Staying away from Facebook will make you happier.
This is what researchers at the Happiness Research Institute in Denmark found after conducting a study on the effect of social media on our quality of lives.
In the study, researchers split a group of 1,095 Danish participants into two groups. Participants in the first group were instructed to continue using Facebook as they normally would. On the other hand, the participants in the other group were asked to abstain from using the social network for a week.
After a week, the participants were asked to evaluate their life satisfaction out of a score of 10. The ratings were the compared to scores they had given prior to the study.
Participants who continued using the giant social media site came up with a score of 7.67 which gradually increased to 7.75 the following week.
Those who abstained from Facebook had a happiness rating of 7.56 which was raised to 8.12.
It was also found that participants who abandoned Facebook were more enthusiastic and decisive as well as less worried, stressed and lonely.
“There can also be positive benefits from Facebook and social media, but I think the real thing to always be aware of is the effect it has on our perception of reality. This constant flow of great news we see on Facebook only represents the top 10 per cent of things that happen to other people. It shouldn’t be used as the background for evaluating our own lives,”Meik Wiking, Happiness Research Institute CEO.
The findings of their study was revealed in their report titled ‘The Facebook Experiment: Does social media affect the quality of our lives?’.
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