For almost a decade, Facebook has been part of everyone’s life. Many of us connect daily to this social network to chat with our contacts, post statuses or get the latest news. Although we spend many hours a week connected to this social network and may find it entertaining, does it really make us happy? One study says it doesn’t .

The advance of technology, the inclusion of social networks in our daily work and the amount of options we have to spend hours and hours connected (smartphones, tablets, computers, etc.), is causing serious problems for people. The FOMO syndrome, Nomophobia or Technostress are some examples, and, in the last few years, psychologists have been recognizing different pathologies associated to the new technologies : disorders that cause unhappiness.

Facebook is a showcase where people show what they want to show

Just a few days ago, a friend told me how difficult it was for her to continue with her normal life after leaving her partner after five years of relationship. The pain she felt for having to get used to her new emotional situation was now compounded by being connected 24 hours a day to social networks, which fed this feeling of sadness and unhappiness .

In his opinion: “It’s hard for me to see how happy people seem to be (even if they’re not), because it makes me feel worse. In social networks we try to show how we want to be and not how we really are, being able to perceive that the life of others is free of problems and is much more interesting and exciting than ours. This is precisely what Brunel University in London discovered, which states that projecting a couple’s happiness on a social network could indicate low self-esteem and narcissism.

We talk about this in our article: “Happy couples” on Facebook hide low self-esteem issues. To read it just click on the link.

Danish study says Facebook makes us unhappy

A study conducted by the Happiness Reasearch Insitute in Denmark states that Facebook makes us unhappy . Researchers who separated 1,905 subjects into two groups, one who used the social network regularly and one who was forced to not use the social network, found that the group participants, after one week without using Facebook, were 55% less stressed.

Mike Wiking, CEO of the Happiness Research Institute in Copenhagen, explains: “We looked at different data related to happiness, and one aspect that was always mentioned by the participants was that comparison with other individuals made them unhappy. “On Facebook we are constantly being bombarded with good news from others, but that is not always true. He adds: “This creates a Facebook world, where everyone shows their best side, a distorted image of themselves. So I wanted to know what would happen if Facebook users went offline for a whole week.

The study included participants of all ages

The participants were between 16 and 76 years old, and were surveyed before the study (and after) to find out their level of satisfaction, how active their social life was , how much they compared with others, and what they found difficult to concentrate on.

One of the participants, Stine Chen, 26, argues: “At first it was complicated, because Facebook has been a big part of my life since I was a teenager, and many social activities are organized around this social network.

For Sophie Anne Dornoy, a 35-year-old woman, it has also been a great challenge not to connect to Facebook for a week: “When I woke up, even before I got out of bed, I would open Facebook on my smartphone just to see if anything exciting had happened during the night. The fear of missing something is known as “FOMO syndrome”.

Disconnecting from Facebook improves concentration

For this study, Dornoy deleted the Facebook application from his mobile device and blocked the page on his computer to avoid the temptation to connect. “After several days, I noticed that I was doing my homework in less time and using my time more productively. I also noticed a certain calm about not being online on Facebook all the time.

After an entire week offline, subjects in the group who refrained from using Facebook showed higher levels of life satisfaction and focus, as well as feeling less alone, more sociable and less stressed.

Chen explains: “My roommates and I talked more because we weren’t connected to Facebook. Dornoy, on the other hand, realized that his phone conversations were longer and he made them to more family members and friends: It made me feel good to know that the world doesn’t end on Facebook and people are able to stay in touch with you if they want to”,

The next step for researchers is to evaluate how long the positive effects of abstinence last a Faceboo k . Wilking himself concludes: “I would like to investigate this for a year, but we will have to see how many volunteers want to go a year without connecting”.