Facebook can make you sad
According to a recent study, the more people use Facebook, the more they inclined to believe that others are happy and having good lives.
Scientists at Utah Valley University got to know that the carefully chosen pictures of smiling, cheerful faces which Facebook users tend to place on their pages make others sad.
Sociologists Hui-Tzu Grace Chou and Nicholas Edge interviewed 425 undergraduate students about their happiness and that of their friends. The participants were asked how much they agreed or disagreed with statements such as "Life is fair" and "many of my friends have a better life than me".
They then described their Facebook activity including their number of "friends" and those of them they actually knew.
As a result, 95% of people used Facebook and on an average they had been there for 2 and a half years and spent nearly 5 hours a week on it.
The scientists paid attention to gender, religiosity and whether people were single or attached. They pointed out that "the more hours people spent on Facebook, the stronger was their agreement that others were happier", especially those who stockpiled "friends" they did not actually know.
On the contrary, people who spent more time on Facebook actually socialising with friends in the flesh, were less likely to feel they had been handed life's short straw.
Chou argues that this Facebook-related dissatisfaction is the result of a common psychological process known as "correspondence bias", in which one draws false conclusions about people based on limited knowledge.
Happy photos of others on Facebook gives people an impression that others are 'always' happy and having good lives.
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