Passive Facebook Use Makes You Envious

In a world of constantly changing social media, every day there's a new device or app out that helps us stay in touch with a new or old friend, relative or acquaintance. Of course, with the good come the bad, too.

Zeroing in on the social networking service Facebook that launched in 2004, a new study shows that passive Facebook use can lead to depression and anxiety.

Previous studies have shown that status updates on Facebook, Twitter or other types of social media may indicate underlying signs of emotional issues. And, of course, a blatantly sarcastic comment about your brother's hairdo or a cat gif are not what we're talking about.

Now researchers have found that people who troll their news feeds on Facebook throughout the day oftentimes feel envious or depressed of other users.

"These findings help illuminate how using Facebook undermines the way people feel," said senior study author Ethan Kross, University of Michigan associate professor of psychology, in a news release. "They also provide people with a blueprint for how to reduce the negative effects that interacting with this technology may have on the way people feel."

For the first part of the experiment, researchers involved 80 undergraduate students who were instructed to actively or passively use Facebook for 10 minutes in a controlled lab environment. When the participants passively used the website, they felt significantly worse at the end of the day, according to study authors. However, this was not true for those who used it actively.

During a second part, researchers examined whether passive use predicted similar outcomes when participants were engaged in behavior spontaneously during their daily life. Throughout six consecutive days, 80 undergraduate students were text messaged five times a day. Each message contained a link to an online questionnaire that asked them to complete a series of questions to gauge their emotions and how often they used the social media site actively versus passively.Passive use increased negative feelings while active use did not.

The study certainly brings up an important yet rather disturbing question: why do many people continue to passively use Facebook if it results in negative feelings? A touch of the old masochism, eh? 

More information regarding the findings can be seen via the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.

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