Does checking one’s Facebook page on a very frequent basis make a person happier or unhappier?
As the Wall Street Journal reports: “A recent survey from the University of Michigan found that the more the subjects checked Facebook, the less satisfied they felt with their own lives.”
Click the image below to see a video interview on this topic with Jonathan Cook, professor of Psychology at Penn State University.
I have found, as was mentioned by the professor in the video, that people are less happy when they check Facebook more. He also stated that it is because people start comparing what they are doing to other people’s lives, especially those who post tons of fun pictures, and begin to look down on themselves. I personally believe that this is especially true when people start following celebrity pages on Facebook, because when people start comparing themselves to celebrities, that is a way to become unhappy quickly. It is common for people to complain about their appearance when they compare it to the appearance of a celebrity and comparing to Facebook celebrities is no different. I also believe that using Facebook more correlates to unhappy people because, in many cases, people use Facebook in an attempt to make themselves feel important and to fill time that, if they were happier, they would probably be using taking part in fun activities with friends.
I can relate from personal experience how unhappy people become from checking social media too often. I have watched my friends or family for reasons that I could not understand. I can see why the outcome of the study was that people become sad. To myself, that was a logical conclusion and I would in fact be quite surprised if the results were the opposite.