A close friend engages in a yearly media detox, where for a period of time he limits his time and activity spent on the Internet. He only answers e-mails requiring an immediate response, spends few minutes reading current news and avoids engaging in social media, shopping online or perusing gossip and entertainment sites. Another friend goes on annual eight-day meditation retreats and turns off her phone for her entire stay. Both report that these periodic breaks significantly improve their moods.
Past research supports their personal experience and shows that while many of use social media to feel connected to others, it can also leave us feeling frustrated, lonely and depressed.
A study (subscription required) recently published online in the journal Computers in Human Behavior offers context to these earlier findings and suggests that when we are feeling blue we use social media sites, such as Facebook, to find friends that are also having a bad day, suffered a setback or going through a tough time in their lives.
During the experiment, researchers gave participants a facial emotion recognition test and randomly told them their performance was "terrible" or "excellent" to put them in positive or negative moods. The individuals were than asked to review profiles on a new social networking site. The profiles used dollar sign or heart icons to make users appear successful and attractive or unattractive and unsuccessful. All profile photos were blurred and the status updates were relatively mundane and similar in tone. PsychCentral reports:
Overall, the researchers found that people tended to spend more time on the profiles of people who were rated as successful and attractive.
But participants who had been put in a negative mood spent significantly more time than others browsing the profiles of people who had been rated as unsuccessful and unattractive.
“If you need a self-esteem boost, you’re going to look at people worse off than you,” [Silvia Knobloch-Westerwick, PhD, co-author of the study] said.
“You’re probably not going to be looking at the people who just got a great new job or just got married.
“One of the great appeals of social network sites is that they allow people to manage their moods by choosing who they want to compare themselves to.”
Previously: Ask Stanford Med: Answers to your questions on the psychological effects of Internet use and Elderly adults turn to social media to stay connected, stave off loneliness
Photo by Paul Walsh
