In an effort to determine the effect of social media on human life the Happiness Research Institute had several interesting findings. The research team, who created the report 'The Facebook Experiment: Does social media affect the quality of our lives?', observed a test group of 1,095 Danish participants, 94 percent of whom habitually visited Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) daily. They were asked to do an initial rating of their life satisfaction prior to the test from a score of 0 to 10, with 10 being the highest.
The group was then divided into a subset that continued to visit the Facebook site every day and another subset that discontinued use of Facebook.
After a full week, the participants were asked to re-evaluate their life satisfaction level. The first subset averaged a rating of 7.67 prior to the test and 7.75 after.
The second subset, who abandoned the Facebook social media, gave an average rating of 7.56 prior to the test and 8.12 after. Intriguingly, this subset were observed to show increased decisiveness and enthusiasm. They were also observed to be less lonely, anxious and stressed.
The CEO of the Happiness Research Institute, Meik Wiking, correlates these findings to the conducive environment that social media provide for people to compare themselves to each other. He says that Facebook lends a distorted perception of what really happens in people's lives.
"We take into account how we're doing in life through comparisons to everyone else, and since most people only post positive things on Facebook, that gives us a very biased perception of reality."
According to Mr. Wiking this constant exposure to a seeming stream of good news creates the risk of viewers perceiving their own life with less satisfaction.
"There can also be positive benefits from Facebook and social media, but I think the real thing to always be aware of is the effect it has on our perception of reality."
Interestingly, Mr. Wiking highlights that the great news that people post on Facebook are only representative of the top 10 percent of what really happens in real life.
"It shouldn't be used as the background for evaluating our own lives."
This research supports the claim of Essena O'Neill, of the Instagram and vlogging fame, when she spoke about the disparity between real life and what is perceived through social media.
Essena warned her numerous Instagram and YouTube followers that the social media system is founded on social approval and lends the perfect stage for manipulation and "self-absorbed judgement".
Part of Essena's revelation is about the fake relationships on social media that people go into for financial and travel benefits, among others.
