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Facebook ‘makes you feel bad’, Mark Zuckerberg led social network admits for first time

The most popular social media site Facebook has finally admitted that sometimes it does make the user feel bad. (File photo)

Facebook, Facebook admits, facebook user feel bad, mark zuckerberg
The most popular social media site Facebook has finally admitted that sometimes it does make the user feel bad. (File photo)

The most popular social media site Facebook has finally admitted that sometimes it does make the user feel bad. Yes, for the first time, Facebook in a quietly groundbreaking admission, published in a company blog post, said that using the social network without contributing, in the form of messages and comments on your friends’ posts, makes you feel bad. According to IANS, Facebook has admitted that passively scrolling through posts on the social media platform can make people feel worse — while active engagement on the platform may have the opposite effect.

Citing scientific research on well-being and social media, Facebook on Friday highlighted the two sides of using social media — the good and the bad. “Just like in person, interacting with people you care about can be beneficial, while simply watching others from the sidelines may make you feel worse,” wrote Facebook’s Director of Research David Ginsberg and its Research Scientist Moira Burke.

“According to the research, it really comes down to how you use the technology,” Facebook said in a blog post. Actively interacting with other people on social media has been “linked to improvements in well-being” by researchers. “Sharing messages and posts with close friends, and reminiscing about old times, can improve your mood,” reports Facebook.

The researchers cited one experiment in which University of Michigan students randomly assigned to read Facebook for 10 minutes were in a worse mood at the end of the day than students assigned to post or talk to friends on Facebook. A study from University of California San Diego and Yale found that people who clicked on about four times as many links as the average person, or who liked twice as many posts, reported worse mental health than average in a survey.

According to The New York Times, a study published this year that showed that people who clicked on more “likes” and links than the typical Facebook user reported worse physical and mental health. On the other hand, another study by Carnegie Mellon University showed that using Facebook more deeply and meaningfully, for instance by posting comments and engaging in back-and-forth chats on the service, improved people’s scores on well-being. The positive effects were even stronger when people talked with their close friends online, the study found.

Recently, Facebook introduced the snooze option in a way to improve people’s social networking experience and make browsing the News Feed less of a drag on our mood. The snooze option lets you safely ignore posts from a particular person or a group for 30 days.

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First published on: 17-12-2017 at 12:25 IST
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