Facebook Facts: Is Social Media Causing You Unhappiness?

Social networking is so much fun. You can see your friend in China while you're sitting drinking coffee in your living room or reconnect with a grade school friend  that you haven't seen in 15 years. Yet you can also see that your ex-boyfriend is freshly in a relationship with that skank that bartends at Fridays.

So as fun, engaging and entertaining as social media can be (and horribly time-consuming), it can also make you sad, angry and discouraged, according to a recent study.

"On the surface, Facebook provides an invaluable resource for fulfilling the basic human need for social connection," lead researcher Ethan Kross, a social psychologist at the University of Michigan, said via a press release. "But rather than enhance well-being, we found that Facebook use predicts the opposite result - it undermines it."

Researchers from the University of Michigan note that these findings could play a critical role in the way that social networking influences people's lives.

They looked at 82 young adults who all had smart phones and Facebook accounts, evaluating participants through texting them at random times five times a day for two weeks.

According to the study, the text message contained a link to an online survey with the following questions: 1.) How do you feel right now? 2.) How worried are you right now? 3.) How lonely do you feel right now? 4.) How much have you used Facebook since the last time we asked? 5.) How much have you interacted with other people "directly" since the last time we asked?

Study findings showed that the more people used Facebook during a certain period, the worse they felt afterwards.

Participants also were asked to rate their level of life satisfaction at the start and end of the study. Too much Facebook use showed a decrease in overall satisfaction, according to background informationi from the study.

Yet researchers found that other social media interactions had no negative effects on others, and actually showed that direct interaction with others via different means of social media could result in a more positive outlook. A direct link between being unhappiness and Facebook could also not be established, according to researchers, as well as lonliness.

What do you think?

More information regarding the study can be found in the journal PLUS One.