Quitting Facebook Makes People Happier, Shows Study

According to a recent study conducted by the Happiness Research Institute, it seems that quitting Facebook actually makes people happier.

After a week, the cold-turkey group reported feeling, on average, 55 per cent less stressed than the group who continued to use Facebook daily, reporting higher levels of life satisfaction, better concentration, feeling less lonely, and more sociable.

After one week, the groups reconvened, and the Happiness Research Institute found that 88% of the Facebook quitters said they felt “happy”, while only 81% of Facebook users felt the same. This forces users to focus on what others have and what they don’t, which might explain why those who check Facebook on a regular basis might not be as happy.

To add insult to injury, the people who didn’t use Facebook said that after the week was over, they had a better social life and less trouble concentrating, whereas the Facebook users experienced no change in either area.

Additionally, half of the Facebook users in the study claimed to envy the experiences of others that were posted on the site, 33 percent envied others apparent happiness, and 40 percent envied the supposed success of others.

The Happiness Research Institute (seriously), based in Denmark, made a decision to analyze Facebook’s impact on happiness, the results of which were released Tuesday.

The Facebook refuseniks also appeared to be generally more satisfied with 84% saying that they appreciated their lives compared with just 75% of the Facebook-using group.

Facebook is ruining all of our lives. Their social activities were also on the rise.

“Facebook is a constant bombardment of everyone else’s great news”, he said.

“Instead of focusing on what we actually need, we have an unfortunate tendency to focus on what other people have”, said the researchers.

Wiking said he would like to attempt the experiment again, this time with a longer duration away from the site, to see if the effects are long lasting.

Also, after one week without Facebook the Treatment Group felt they wasted their time less.