Facebook creates ‘lonely and angry’ users

FACEBOOK can make users “lonely and angry” because they are constantly comparing themselves to other people’s seemingly perfect lives, a new study has found.
Facebook gives an artificial impression that others are happier than they actually are, a study has said. Picture: John DevlinFacebook gives an artificial impression that others are happier than they actually are, a study has said. Picture: John Devlin
Facebook gives an artificial impression that others are happier than they actually are, a study has said. Picture: John Devlin

Checking the social networking site provides members with instant gratification in the form of “likes” and friend requests – but it also gives an artificial impression that others are happier than they are, researchers claimed.

Denmark’s Happiness Research Institute conducted an experiment on 1,095 people in Denmark, who gave an average ranking of their current state of happiness at 7.6 out of ten.

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They then asked half of them to stop using Facebook for one week, and the other half to continue as normal.

After seven days, those who had not logged on to the site reported their happiness at 8.12 out of ten, while the happiness of those that had remained unchanged.

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