Are you #sad, #stressed, #lonely?
Social media might be to blame. Specifically Facebook, if a recent study out of Denmark is to be believed. Well, if a study out of an entity called The Happiness Research Institute (really) is to be believed.
It found happiness and harmony are scarce in the hashtag universe.
"This experiment was conducted on 1,095 people in Denmark. We randomly assigned half of them to the following task: Do not use Facebook for one week," explains the study, titled "The Facebook Experiment: Does Social Media Affect the Quality of Our Lives?" Meanwhile, a control group continued to use Facebook as usual.
The participants were surveyed about their life satisfaction, mood, social life concentration -- before and after the week to evaluate the effect Facebook participation had on them.
It seems social media is making us rather antisocial. Apparently being free from Facebook -- and our friends' food pictures and cat photos (guilty -- sorry about both of those), political propaganda, vacation videos, game requests, improper grammar, needy posts, quiz results, driving rants, multi-level marketing pitches, unsolicited poking, spam messages, gratuitous selfies, children boasts, hoax shares -- has a significant effect on people. A positive one.
According to the research, after one week without Facebook, people:
• "Reported a significantly higher level of life satisfaction."
• "Felt happier and were less sad and lonely."
• "Experienced less concentration difficulties."
• Were "more likely to feel present in the moment."
• "Wasted their time less."
In general, the survey concludes, "People on Facebook are 39 percent more likely to feel less happy than their friends."
At the core of our Facebook funk appears to be envy. When people are bombarded by constant upbeat/braggy/fun posts in their news feeds (the study found 61 percent of people prefer to post their good sides and 69 percent prefer to post pictures of great experiences), they can feel like their lives don't measure up.
"Social media is a nonstop great news channel. A constant flow of edited lives, which distorts our perception of reality," the study says.
The study showed a significant number of participants coveted the experiences and perceived success and happiness of their friends.
But hey, now that we know how unhappy and envy-plagued Facebook is really making our acquaintances, that's something to be happy about!
I found out about this study, of course, via Facebook (oh, yes, despite this research, Happiness Institute maintains an active site presence -- tinyurl.com/happyinstitute). So did millions of people. It spread by social and traditional media.
The Happiness Research Institute posted last week, "Thank you! More than 10,000,000 people across the globe have now read the results of our Facebook experiment, which so many of you participated in. Your experiences feature in The Guardian, Le Figaro, The Hindu, The Independent, Suddeutsche Zeitung, Marie Claire, The Times and many other papers around the world creating awareness about the negative effects of social media and social comparisons. Yes, we are still aware of the irony."
For more information about the study, you can go on Facebook.
But for the sake of your emotional well-being, you probably shouldn't risk it.
C'mon, get happy and email:
jchristman@arkansasonline.com
What's in a Dame is a weekly report from the woman 'hood. You can hear Jennifer on Little Rock's KURB-FM, B98.5 (B98.com), from 5:30-9 a.m. Monday through Friday.
Style on 11/17/2015