09 Aug Socially connected generation feeling anything but that!
I found it fascinating that a new study has shown that those who who use Facebook more often are less satisfied with their lives and are less healthy than those who don’t use it as much.
In an era of the social media frenzy, everywhere you go you can see ‘friends’ sitting side by side, not talking or interacting, but each glued to their cell phone engulfed in social media.
This study (you can read the article below or find it HERE) found that, “The more times you click like, the worse you feel.”
Those who use Facebook more frequently clicking and liking and ‘connecting’ with others via this social network are actually less connected and less emotionally healthy and happy.
This should not be a surprise to us as social media actually works to isolate and separate us from one another while promising more connection, more ‘friends’, and more happiness.
Start your own revolution by disconnecting electronically, delete the app, get off the you and your screen relationship and start to invest in real life, face-to-face friendships – real friendships!
Norm
Facebook use associated with decreased health and happiness, study finds
By Lulu Chang | Digital Trends
Published May 26, 2017
You may be more connected to the world than ever, but when it comes to feeling closer, it’s a different story. As per a new study from the University of California, San Diego, and Yale University, Facebook use could be related to our health and happiness, and not in a positive way. And given that the social network boasts a user base of around 2 billion people, that’s a rather alarming finding.
The study, which was recently published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, suggests that those who use Facebook more often are less satisfied with their lives and are less healthy than those who are more judicious in the number of times they log on. As the Wall Street Journal noted, “To put it baldly: The more times you click like, the worse you feel.”
UCSD’s Holly Shakya, an assistant professor of public health, and Nicholas Christakis, the director of the Human Nature Lab at Yale University, tracked the mental health and social interactions of 5,208 study participants over the course of two years. The study’s subjects agreed to respond to national surveys put forth by Gallup between 2013 and 2015 (which helped researchers monitor their health, emotions, and social lives), and further, to talk with researchers about their health, social lives, and Facebook use.
Ultimately, the team found that Facebook usage was “tightly linked to compromised social, physical, and psychological health.” In fact, for every statistical leap above the average in “liking” a post, clicking a link, or updating one’s own status, the study found a 5 to 8 percent increase in the chance that the user would report mental health issues.
This is by no means the first or only study to suggest such a correlation. Other research has found that increased use of social media is often accompanied by increased feelings of isolation, as well as anxiety and FOMO (fear of missing out).
Of course, there could be plenty of confounding variables affecting these studies’ findings, and we may not be able to ever unilaterally prove that Facebook is “good” or “bad” for the psyche. But regardless, Christakis noted, What people really need is real friendships and real interactions
