Facebook ‘promotes unhappiness’ says study
pharmafile | August 23, 2013 | News story | Medical Communications, Sales and Marketing | Facebook, Plos One
Pharma may need to re-think it’s presence on Facebook after a new study revealed that instead of promoting well-being, the networking site actually made users glum.
The report, published in the Plos One journal, recruited 82 young adults who had smartphones and Facebook accounts.
Participants were asked how they felt ‘right now’ via five random text messages a day for a fortnight, as well as how worried or lonely they were, and to what extent they had been using Facebook or interacting with other people directly.
In contrast, talking to friends on the phone or meeting them in person led to greater levels of happiness.
The researchers concluded that higher levels of Facebook use correlated with a greater loss of well-being.
In an accompanying editorial the study’s authors wrote: “On the surface, Facebook provides an invaluable resource for fulfilling the basic human need for social connection. Rather than enhancing well-being, however, these findings suggest that Facebook may undermine it.”
Over a billion people belong to Facebook, the world’s largest online social network, and over half of those that log in daily.
The study was conducted by Dr Ethan Kross of the University of Michigan and Dr Philippe Verduyn of Leuven University in Belgium, and is the first to follow Facebook users for an extended period and track how their emotions change.
The study also showed that a volunteer’s sex had no influence on these findings; nor did the size of their social network, their stated motivation for using Facebook, the level of loneliness, or depression or self-esteem.
Curiously these results may be as a result of Facebook itself. The researchers say that direct social network interactions do lead people to feel better over time, meaning its results suggest Facebook use may constitute “a unique form of social network interaction that predicts impoverished well-being”.
A number of pharma firms are on the networking site, including Sanofi, Pfizer and Boehringer Ingelheim. But given that pharma is designed to make people well, it may need to re-think its use of the networking site if its use can lead to unhappiness.
Ben Adams
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