essay on bad effects of facebook

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Facebook is a harmful presence in our lives. It’s not too late to pull the plug on it

Undaunted by scandals, the social media giant plans to tighten its grip on our everyday activities. We don’t have to just submit

F acebook is in perpetual crisis mode. For years now, the company has confronted waves of critical scrutiny on issues caused or exacerbated by the platform. Recent revelations have lengthened the charge sheet.

That list includes the mass data collection and privacy invasion by Cambridge Analytica ; the accusations of Russian interference during the 2016 presidential election; unrestrained hate speech, inciting, among other things, genocide in Myanmar ; the viral spread of disinformation about the coronavirus and vaccines, with Joe Biden proclaiming about Facebook and other social media platforms: “They’re killing people”. Add to that Facebook Marketplace: with a billion users buying and selling goods, ProPublica found a growing pool of scammers and fraudsters exploiting the site, with Facebook failing “to safeguard users”.

The latest wave of investigative reporting focused on the company, meanwhile, comes from the Wall Street Journal’s Facebook Files series. After pouring over a cache of the company’s internal documents, the WSJ reported that “Facebook’s researchers have identified the platform’s ill effects”. For instance, the company downplayed findings that using Instagram can have significant impacts on the mental health of teenage girls. Meanwhile, it has been implementing strategies to attract more preteen users to Instagram. The platform’s algorithm is designed to foster more user engagement in any way possible, including by sowing discord and rewarding outrage . This issue was raised by Facebook’s integrity team, which also proposed changes to the algorithm that would suppress, rather than accelerate, such animus between users. These solutions were struck down by Facebook’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, because he prioritised growing engagement above other objectives.

What’s more, the WSJ reported, Facebook employees “ raised alarms ” about drug cartels and human traffickers in developing countries using the platform, but the company’s response has been anaemic. Perhaps because executives are, yet again, hesitant to impede growth in these rapidly expanding markets.

This is consistent with claims by Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen, who said at the weekend, in an interview with 60 Minutes , “Facebook, over and over again, has shown it chooses profit over safety.” It also emerged that Haugen has filed at least eight complaints with the US financial watchdog over Facebook’s approach to safety. Haugen testified before the US Senate on Tuesday, backing up her revelations. “I’m here today because I believe Facebook’s products harm children, stoke division and weaken our democracy,” she said. “The company’s leadership knows how to make Facebook and Instagram safer, but won’t make the necessary changes because they have put their astronomical profits before people.” We shouldn’t be surprised that making money hand over fist is any company’s primary motivation. But here we have further evidence that Facebook is a uniquely socially toxic platform.

Despite the executive team’s awareness of these serious problems, despite congressional hearings and scripted pledges to do better, despite Zuckerberg’s grandiose mission statements that change with the tides of public pressure, Facebook continues to shrug off the great responsibility that comes with the great power and wealth it has accumulated.

Each surging wave builds on the last, hitting Facebook even harder, enveloping it in scandal after scandal. In response, the company has decided to go on the offensive – rather than truly address any of its problems.

In August, Zuckerberg signed off on an initiative called Project Amplify , which aims to use Facebook’s news feed “to show people positive stories about the social network”, according to the New York Times . By pushing pro-Facebook stories, including some “written by the company”, it hopes to influence how users perceive the platform. Facebook is no longer happy to just let others use the news feed to propagate misinformation and exert influence – it wants to wield this tool for its own interests, too.

With Project Amplify under way, Facebook is mounting a serious defence against the WSJ Facebook Files. In an article posted on Facebook Newsroom by Nick Clegg, Facebook’s vice-president of global affairs, , accusations of “deliberate mischaracterisations” by the WSJ reporters are lobbed in without supplying any specific details or corrections. Similarly, in an internal memo sent by Clegg to pre-empt Haugen’s interview, Clegg rejected any responsibility for Facebook being “the primary cause of polarisation”, blamed the prevalence of extreme views on individual bad actors like “a rogue uncle” and provided talking points for employees who might “get questions from friends and families about these things”.

It’s all spin, with no substance. A trained politician deflecting accusations while planting seeds of doubt in the public’s mind without acknowledging or addressing the problems at hand.

In another response to the WSJ, Facebook’s head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, made a strange analogy between social media and cars: “We know that more people die than would otherwise because of car accidents, but by and large, cars create way more value in the world than they destroy,” Mosseri said. “And I think social media is similar.” Mosseri can no longer deny that platforms like his are forces for destruction. His tactic is to convince us that a simple cost-benefit analysis comes out in his favour. He happens to elide the fact that cars cause more than crashes; they are also responsible for systemic social and environmental consequences at every level. Of course, this is exactly the kind of self-interested myopia we should expect from a tech executive under fire.

Beyond pushing back against critical reporting, however, an initiative like Project Amplify should be understood as Facebook attempting to pave the way for its deeper penetration into every facet of our reality. After all, when asked last year by Congress why Facebook is not a monopoly, Zuckerberg said it’s because he views all possible modes of “ people connecting with other people ” as a form of competition for his business. And if we know anything about Facebook, they are very good at capturing market share and crushing competitors – no matter what it takes.

Facebook needs users to form an intimate relationship with the platform. In quick succession this summer, it announced two new products that represent the company’s next planned phase of existence – both its own and ours.

First is the “ metaverse ”. Named after an explicitly dystopian sci-fi idea , the metaverse is, for now, pitched as essentially a virtual reality office – accessed through VR goggles like Facebook Oculus – where you go to see colleagues, attend meetings, and give presentations without having to leave home. Zuckerberg proclaimed that over the next five years, Facebook “will effectively transition from people seeing us as primarily being a social media company to being a metaverse company.”

Second is Ray-Ban Stories, Facebook’s attempt to succeed where Google Glass failed. Ray-Ban Stories are pitched as a frictionless way to stay constantly connected to Facebook and Instagram without that pesky smartphone getting in the way. Now you can achieve the dream of sharing every moment of your day with Facebook – and the valuable data produced from it – without ever needing to think about it.

Importantly, access to both kinds of reality – virtual and augmented – are mediated by Facebook. The executives at Facebook would like you to believe that the company is now a permanent fixture in society. That a platform primarily designed to supercharge targeted advertisements has earned the right to mediate not just our access to information or connection but our perception of reality. And Facebook’s aggressive attempts to combat any scepticism, combined with its reality-shaping ambitions, shows how desperate it is to convince us to accept the social poison it peddles and ask for more.

Days before Facebook’s latest congressional hearing – this time on the mental impacts of Instagram on teenagers – Mosseri announced his team was pausing Instagram Kids, a service aimed at people under 13 years old, and developing “parental supervision tools”. It seems yet again that they will do the bare minimum only when forced to do so. Speaking about this change of direction in her Senate hearing, Haugen was sceptical: “I would be sincerely surprised if they do not continue working on Instagram Kids, and I would be amazed if a year from now we don’t have this conversation again.”

For Facebook, all this negative attention amounts to an image problem: bad publicity that can be counteracted by good propaganda. For the rest of us, this is indicative that Facebook doesn’t just have a problem; Facebook is the problem. Ultimately, an overwhelming case is growing against Facebook’s right to even exist, let alone continue enjoying unrestricted operation and expansion.

We must not forget that Facebook is still young. It was founded in 2004, but didn’t really come into itself, becoming the behemoth we know today, until going public in 2012, buying Instagram for $1bn (£760m) that same year and then acquiring WhatsApp for $19bn two years later. True to its original informal motto – “Move fast and break things” – Facebook has wasted no time wreaking a well-documented path of destruction.

When Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp temporarily went offline this week due to a technical problem , we saw just how dependent we have already become on these services for so many everyday activities. It was a shock to suddenly be without them. The company would probably see this as evidence that our lives are too intertwined with its services for them to ever go away. But, as the company has proven time and time again, our interests and its interests are rarely aligned. We should instead recognise that allowing a rapacious company to design and own critical infrastructure with zero accountability is the worst of all possible options.

If its executives want to compare social media to cars, then at the very least this dangerous technology must be subjected to the same level of heavy regulation and independent oversight as the automotive industry. Otherwise, Facebook must be reminded that it’s not too late for the public to pull the plug on this social experiment gone wrong. Right now, almost any alternative would be better.

Jathan Sadowski is a research fellow in the emerging technologies research lab at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia

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Academic study reveals new evidence of Facebook's negative impact on the mental health of college students

MIT Sloan Office of Communications

Sep 27, 2022

Researchers created control group by  comparing colleges that had access to the platform to colleges that did not during the first two years of its existence

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Sept. 27, 2022 — A  new study  led by researchers from Tel Aviv University,  MIT Sloan School of Management  and Bocconi University reveals new findings about the negative impact of Facebook on the mental health of American college students. The study focuses on Facebook's first two-and-a-half years (2004-2006), when the new social network was gradually spreading through academic institutions, and it was still possible to detect its impact by comparing colleges that had access to the platform to colleges that did not. The findings found a rise in the number of students who had access to Facebook reporting severe depression and anxiety (7% and 20% respectively).

The study was led by  Dr. Roee Levy  of the School of Economics at Tel Aviv University,  Prof. Alexey Makarin  of MIT Sloan School of Management, and  Prof. Luca Braghieri  of Bocconi University. The paper is forthcoming in the academic journal  American Economic Review.

"Over the last fifteen years, the mental health trends of adolescents and young adults in the United States have worsened considerably," said Prof. Braghieri. "Since such worsening in trends coincided with the rise of social media, it seemed plausible to speculate that the two phenomena might be related."

The study goes back to the advent of Facebook at Harvard University in 2004, when it was the world's first social network. Facebook was initially accessible only to Harvard students who had a Harvard email address. Quickly spreading to other colleges in and outside the US, the network was finally made available to the general public in the US and beyond in September 2006.

The researchers studied Facebook's gradual expansion during those first two-and-a-half years to compare the mental health of students in colleges that had access to Facebook with that of students in colleges that did not have access to the platform at that time. Their methodology also took into account any differences in mental health over time or across colleges that were not related to Facebook. This approach enabled conditions similar to those of a 'natural experiment' - clearly impossible today now that billions of people use many different social networks.

Prof. Makarin said, "Many studies have found a correlation between the use of social media and various symptoms related to mental health. However, so far, it has been challenging to ascertain whether social media was actually the  cause  of poor mental health. In this study, by applying a novel research method, we were able to establish this causality."

The study combined information from two different datasets: the specific dates on which Facebook was introduced at 775 American colleges, and the National College Health Assessment (NCHA), a survey conducted periodically at American colleges.

The researchers built an index based on 15 relevant questions in the NCHA, in which students were asked about their mental health in the past year. They found a statistically significant worsening in mental health symptoms, especially depression and anxiety, after the arrival of Facebook:

• a rise of 7% in the number of students who had suffered, at least once during the preceding year, from depression so severe that it was difficult for them to function;
• a rise of 20% in those who reported anxiety disorders;
• an increase in the percentage of students expected to experience moderate to severe depression - from 25% to 27%;
• a rise in the percentage of students who had experienced impairment to their academic performance due to depression or anxiety - from 13% to 16%.

Moreover, the impact of Facebook on mental health was measured at 25% of the impact of losing a job, and 85% of the gap between the mental states of students with and without financial debt – with loss of employment known of employment and debt known to strongly affect mental health.

Dr. Levy said, "When studying the potential mechanisms, we hypothesized that unfavorable social comparisons could explain the effects we found, and that students more susceptible to such comparisons were more likely to suffer negative effects. To test this interpretation, we looked at more data from the NCHA. We found, for example, a greater negative impact on the mental health of students who lived off-campus and were consequently less involved in social activities, and a greater negative impact on students with credit card debts who saw their supposedly wealthier peers on the network."

"We also found evidence that Facebook had changed students' beliefs about their peers: more students believed that others consumed more alcohol, even though alcohol consumption had not changed significantly. We conclude that even today, despite familiarity with the social networks and their impact, many users continue to envy their online friends and struggle to distinguish between the image on the screen and real life."

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Positive and negative effects of Facebook

• December 18, 2017
• General , Technology

Facebook is a social networking service working under the aegis of a for-profit organization, Facebook Inc., whose chairman and CEO is Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder of this large network. Confined to a college campus in Massachusetts in 2004, today, it has footage in most of the parts of the world. The services Facebook provides include cost-free registration, sending friend requests to other users, posting and sharing status, photos, and videos, and a free messenger. As of 2017, the users constitute 27% of the global population. In addition, the widespread smartphone usage and accessibility of the internet has enhanced its popularity. Recently, where Facebook is expanding its coverage by modifying its services, it attracted notable attention from the world community following its alleged misuse.

Positive effects of Facebook:

Facebook has changed the definition of the social world.

Brings equality

Facebook provides neutral facilities and services to every person on this planet. Celebrities, national leaders, and wealthy businessmen don’t own special treatment or a classified page or an account that a few people can access. A common citizen and a high-class person, both access, post, and share in the same way.

Large social circle

The existence of a networking site like Facebook benefits an individual in staying in contact with the known and friends for a long and lifetime. Whenever someone needs help or an advice, a friend is a mere second away, because of Facebook. Facebook provides an opportunity to establish contact with people of similar interests, which can be helpful in professional life and self-development.

Digital campaigns

Social media has become commonplace to gain the attention of government toward any social cause and illegal activity. Facebook users show their support by sharing an incident or posting a unique display picture. Reports show that it takes a day for such an issue to reach Parliament house, where an issue took weeks and months for the same in past. Also, Facebook has lowered the burden of police, as users help in finding missing children or a culprit by sharing videos and photos.

Increases awareness

Internet constitutes numerous news websites and the followers are comparatively lower. These websites use the Facebook platform to inform and spread everyday reporting in the different parts of the world. In this way, Facebook makes every user a knowledgeable and intellectual person.

Negative effects of Facebook:

The digital world of Facebook has consumed the normal and healthy living.

Using a Facebook account isn’t a group thing but a sole participation. The willingness to stay in contact with the friends and the world events glued a user to the Facebook via cell phones . This has led to the isolation among youngsters, who feel comfortable and content with a virtual living in a digital world. It, in turn, affects the relationships and mandatory responsibilities in the physical world.

Live crimes

Since the Facebook introduced ‘live’ option in its application, the live crimes have increased where a user records a robbery or sexual harassment through an account. The hunger of publicity and maximum followers have influenced users to perform these inhumane activities. As a criminal can make an anonymous account or hack someone else’s account, police find it difficult to reach the real culprit.

Unstable relationships

Today, youngster find it easy and interesting to make friends on Facebook. They might develop a strong bond with someone and at the same time, a couple might argue regarding posted comments on social media. Figures show that many youngsters face breakups on Facebook. The way people end their relationships despite being physically distant and in a different situation and circumstances have proved a major stain on the social culture that humans have been developing since ages.

24*7 open application impacts normal lives of people to a great extent. The lack of concentration in a task someone is performing in the physical world is a major negative effect of continuous Facebook availability. Facebook disturbs the study time, family and friends get-together. It’s usage in late night hours raise insomnia, eye-stress, and other health issues among users. And the urge of knowing ‘what’s new’ leads to Facebook usage in working hours, which, further, impact the effective delivery of assignments and job, altogether.

Facebook is a revolution itself, which provided a single platform to every human being on this earth to communicate and share their culture. One can’t reverse the hold it possesses in this modern world in coming years. At the same time, many countries have banned the Facebook usage following the fake news and extensive violence on its services. To eliminate these limitations, human behavioral changes is must and government can contribute by creating an awareness among citizens regarding ethical use of the Facebook.

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How Facebook is changing our social lives

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With over a billion users, Facebook is changing the social life of our species. Cultural commentators ponder the effects. Is it bringing us together or tearing us apart? Psychologists have responded too – Google Scholar lists more than 27,000 references with Facebook in the title. Common topics for study are links between Facebook use and personality, and whether the network alleviates or fosters loneliness. The torrent of new data is overwhelming and much of it appears contradictory. Here is the psychology of Facebook, digested:

Who uses Facebook?

According to a survey of over a thousand people, “ females, younger people, and those not currently in a committed relationship were the most active Facebook users “. Regarding personality, a study of over 1000 Australians reported that “[FB]  users tend to be more extraverted and narcissistic , but less conscientious and socially lonely, than nonusers “. A study of the actual FB use of over a hundred students found that personality was a more important factor than gender and FB experience , with high scorers in neuroticism spending more time on FB. Meanwhile, extraverts were found to have more friends on the network than introverts (“the 10 per cent of our respondents scoring the highest in extraversion had, on average, 484 more friends than the 10 per cent scoring the lowest in extraversion”).

Other findings add to the picture, for example:  greater shyness has also been linked with more FB use . Similarly, a study from 2013 found that anxiousness (as well as alcohol and marijuana use) predicted more emotional attachment to Facebook .

There’s also evidence that people use FB to connect with others with specialist interests, such as diabetes patients sharing information and experiences , and that people with autism particularly enjoy interacting via FB and other online networks.

Why do some people use Twitter and others Facebook?

Apparently most people use Facebook “ to get instant communication and connection with their friends ” (who knew?), but why use FB rather than Twitter? A 2014 paper suggested narcissism again is relevant, but that its influence depends on a person’s age: student narcissists prefer Twitter, while more mature narcissists prefer FB . Other research has uncovered intriguing links between personality and reasons for using FB.  People who said they used FB as an informational tool (rather than socialising) tended to score higher on neuroticism, sociability, extraversion and openness, but lower on conscientiousness and “need for cognition” . The researchers speculated that using FB to seek and share information could be some people’s way to avoid more cognitively demanding sources such as journal articles and newspaper reports. The same study also found that higher scorers in sociability, neuroticism and extraversion preferred FB, while people who scored higher in “need for cognition” preferred Twitter.

What do we give away about ourselves on Facebook? FB seems like the perfect way to present an idealised version of yourself to the world. However an analysis of the profiles of over 200 people in Germany and the US found that they reflected their actual personalities, not their ideal selves. Consistent with this, another study found that people who are rated as more likeable in the flesh also tend to be rated as more likeable based on their Facebook page. The things you choose to “like” on FB are also revealing. Remarkably, a study out last week found that your “likes” can be analysed by a computer programme to produce a more accurate profile of your personality than the profiles produced by your friends and relatives.

If our FB profiles expose our true selves, this raises obvious privacy issues. A study in 2013 warned that employers often trawl candidates’ FB pages, and that they view photos of drinking and partying as “red flags”, presumably seeing them as a sign of low conscientiousness (in fact the study found photos like these were linked with high extraversion, not with low conscientiousness).

Other researchers have looked specifically at how personality is related to the kind of content people post on FB. A 2014 study reported that “ higher degrees of narcissism led to deeper self-disclosures and more self-promotional content within these messages. [And] Users with higher need to belong disclosed more intimate information “. Another study last year also reported that lonelier people disclose more private information , but fewer opinions.

You might also want to consider the friends you keep on FB – research suggests that their attractiveness (good-lookers give your rep a boost), and the statements they make about you on your wall, affect the way your own profile is perceived . Consider too how many friends you have – somewhat paradoxically, research finds that having an overabundance of friends leads to negative perceptions of your profile .

Finally, we heard about employers frowning on partying photos, but what else do you give away in your FB profile picture? It could reveal your cultural background according to a 2012 study that showed people from Taiwan were more likely to have a zoomed-out picture in which they were seen against a background context, while US users were more likely to have a close-up picture in which their face filled up more of the frame. Your FB pic might also say something about your current romantic relationship. When people feel more insecure about their partner’s feelings, they make their relationship more visible in their pics .

In case you’re wondering, yes,  people who post more selfies probably are more narcissistic .

Is Facebook making us lonely and sad?

This is the crunch question that has probably attracted the most newspaper column inches (and books ). A 2012 study took an experimental approach. One group were asked to post more updates than usual for one week – this led them to feel less lonely and more connected to their friends . Similarly, a survey of over a thousand FB users found links between use of the network and greater feelings of belonging and confidence in keeping up with friends, especially for people with low self-esteem. Another study from 2010 found that shy students who use FB feel closer to their friends (on FB) and have a greater sense of social support. A similar story is told by a 2013 paper that said feelings of FB connectedness were associated with “with lower depression and anxiety and greater satisfaction with life” and that Facebook “may act as a separate social medium ….  with a range of positive psychological outcomes.” This recent  report  also suggested the site can help revive old relationships.

Yet there’s also evidence for the negative influence of FB. A 2013 study texted people through the day, to see how they felt before and after using FB. “ The more people used Facebook at one time point, the worse they felt the next time we text-messaged them ; [and] the more they used Facebook over two-weeks, the more their life satisfaction levels declined over time,” the researchers said.

Other findings are more nuanced. This study from 2010 (not specifically focused on FB) found that using the internet to connect with existing friends was associated with less loneliness, but using it to connect with strangers (i.e. people only known online) was associated with more loneliness. This survey of adults with autism found that greater use of online social networking (including FB) was associated with having more close friendships, but only offline relationships were linked with feeling less lonely.

Facebook could also be fuelling envy . In 2012 researchers found that people who’d spent more time on FB felt that other people were happier, and that life was less fair. Similarly, a study of hundreds of undergrads found that more time on FB went hand in hand with more feelings of jealousy . And a paper from last year concluded that “ people feel depressed after spending a great deal of time on Facebook because they feel badly when comparing themselves to others.” However, this new report (on general online social networking, not just FB) found that heavy users are not more stressed than average, but are more aware of other people’s stress.

Is Facebook harming students’ academic work? This is another live issue among newspaper columnists and other social commentators. An analysis of the grades and FB use of nearly 4000 US students found that the more they used the network to socialise, the poorer their grades tended to be (of course, there could be a separate causal factor(s) underlying this association). But not all FB use is the same – the study found that using the site to collect and share information was actually associated with better grades. This survey of over 200 students also found that heavier users of FB tend to have lower academic grades, but note again that this doesn’t prove a causal link. Yet another study , this one from the University of Chicago, which included more convincing longitudinal data, found no evidence for a link between FB use and poorer grades; if anything there were signs of the opposite pattern. Still more positive evidence for FB came from a recent report that suggested FB – along with other social networking tools – could have cognitive benefits for elderly people. And finally, some miscellaneous findings

• These are the unwritten rules of Facebook , according to focus groups with students.
• Viewing your own FB profile boosts self-esteem .
• Emotions are contagious on Facebook (this is the recent study that caused controversy because users’ feeds were manipulated without them knowing).
• Surprise! Both male and female subjects are more willing to initiate friendships with opposite-sex profile owners with attractive photos .
• People publish posts on FB that they later regret for various reasons , including posting when they’re in an emotional state or misunderstanding their online social circles.

Who needs cheap thrills or meditation? Apparently, looking at your FB account is different, physiologically speaking, from stress or relaxation. It provokes what these researchers describe appealingly as a “ core flow state “, characterised by positive mood and high arousal.

This post first appeared on the British Psychological Society’s  Research Digest Blog . Publication does not imply endorsement of views by the World Economic Forum.

Author: Christian Jarrett, a cognitive neuroscientist turned science writer, is editor and creator of the British Psychological Society’s Research Digest blog. His latest book is  Great Myths of the Brain .

This post is published as part of a blog series by the Human Implications of Digital Media project .

Image: People are silhouetted as they pose with mobile devices. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic.

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REVIEW article

Negative psychological and physiological effects of social networking site use: the example of facebook.

• 1 Digital Business Institute, School of Business and Management, University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria, Steyr, Austria
• 2 Institute of Business Informatics – Information Engineering, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Linz, Austria
• 3 Department of Molecular Psychology, Institute of Psychology and Education, Ulm University, Ulm, Germany

Social networking sites (SNS), with Facebook as a prominent example, have become an integral part of our daily lives and more than four billion people worldwide use SNS. However, the (over-)use of SNS also poses both psychological and physiological risks. In the present article, we review the scientific literature on the risk of Facebook (over-)use. Addressing this topic is critical because evidence indicates the development of problematic Facebook use (“Facebook addiction”) due to excessive and uncontrolled use behavior with various psychological and physiological effects. We conducted a review to examine the scope, range, and nature of prior empirical research on the negative psychological and physiological effects of Facebook use. Our literature search process revealed a total of 232 papers showing that Facebook use is associated with eight major psychological effects (perceived anxiety, perceived depression, perceived loneliness, perceived eating disorders, perceived self-esteem, perceived life satisfaction, perceived insomnia, and perceived stress) and three physiological effects (physiological stress, human brain alteration, and affective experience state). The review also describes how Facebook use is associated with these effects and provides additional details on the reviewed literature, including research design, sample, age, and measures. Please note that the term “Facebook use” represents an umbrella term in the present work, and in the respective sections it will be made clear what kind of Facebook use is associated with a myriad of investigated psychological variables. Overall, findings indicate that certain kinds of Facebook use may come along with significant risks, both psychologically and physiologically. Based on our review, we also identify potential avenues for future research.

1. Introduction

Social networking sites (SNS) have become an integral part of our daily lives and play an important role in many areas. The main benefits of SNSs include creating connections between people ( Hess et al., 2016 ), supporting collaboration and interpersonal communication ( Kane et al., 2014 ), building social capital ( Kwon et al., 2013 ) and generating marketing opportunities ( Schreiner et al., 2021 ). Thus, SNSs provide a platform for social connection and sense of belonging ( Zhao et al., 2012 ; Sariyska et al., 2019 ), which is considered a fundamental biological human need ( Maslow, 1943 ; Kunc, 1992 ; Kenrick et al., 2010 ; Montag et al., 2020b ; Rozgonjuk et al., 2021a ). Also, SNSs promote continuous engagement due to their numerous features and functions. Examples include creating and maintaining personal profiles, sharing posts with family and friends, responding to notifications, or playing games ( Frost and Rickwood, 2017 ; Chuang, 2020 ).

A prominent example of an SNS is Facebook. In fact, it is the most used SNS in the world, with around 2.96 billion active users each month ( Statista, 2022d ). American users, for example, spend an average of 33 min per day on Facebook ( Statista, 2022a ). An excessive and uncontrolled use of Facebook, however, also poses risks, both psychologically and physiologically. For example, frequent interaction with Facebook is associated with greater psychological distress ( Chen and Lee, 2013 ). Mabe et al. (2014) found an association between regular social network use and perceived eating disorders. Other negative consequences that may result from excessive and uncontrolled Facebook use include the perception of depressive symptoms and anxiety (e.g., Wright et al., 2018 ), lower self-esteem (e.g., Hanna et al., 2017 ), as well as psychological (e.g., Brailovskaia et al., 2019a ) and physiological stress (e.g., Campisi et al., 2017 ). Those who spend several hours a day on Facebook run the risk of losing control over their usage behavior ( Brailovskaia and Margraf, 2017 ) and developing a Facebook addiction ( Koc and Gulyagci, 2013 ). Please note that the addiction term is not officially recognized when discussing social media overuse (for debates, please see Carbonell and Panova, 2017 ) and it is of importance to not overpathologize everyday life behavior ( Billieux et al., 2015 ).

Considering the potential risks of an excessive and uncontrolled Facebook use, the aim of this paper is to develop a concise and fundamental understanding of the negative psychological and physiological effects of Facebook use by synthesizing the accumulated knowledge of prior research. This review is therefore designed to provide an in-depth comprehension of the scope, range, and nature of the existing literature on the negative effects of Facebook use, including psychological and physiological effects ( Hart, 1988 ). The term ‘Facebook use’ is an umbrella concept in our work. In the literature, different forms of Facebook use have been discussed ranging from overall use in terms of duration or frequency to active/passive use of Facebook (for recent updates, please see Verduyn et al., 2022 ) to addictive like use ( Sindermann et al., 2020 ). Logically, different forms of Facebook use might be associated with different psychological effects. Therefore, each section will state in detail how Facebook use was operationalized in the different studies. When we speak in the following of “Facebook use,” it should be kept in mind that the term “Facebook use” here describes all kinds of Facebook use investigated in the literature. Accordingly, we address the following research question: What negative psychological and physiological effects of Facebook use are identified by the current state of scientific research?

The remainder of this paper is structured as follows. Section 2 describes the methodology of our review. Then, Section 3 follows with a presentation of the review results. We discuss our results in Section 4 by focusing on contributions and potentials for future research activities. Finally, in Section 5, we provide a concluding statement.

2. Review methodology

To examine the scope, range, and nature of prior research on the negative psychological and physiological effects of Facebook use, we conducted a scoping review to determine the extent of existing literature and the topics addressed therein (for an overview of the different literature review types, please see Paré et al., 2015 ; Schryen et al., 2017 , 2020 ). The literature search process was based on existing methodological recommendations for conducting literature searches ( Webster and Watson, 2002 ; Kitchenham and Charters, 2007 ; vom Brocke et al., 2009 ) and considered peer-reviewed journal and conference papers in English with no publication year restriction. As outlined in detail below, the present review includes literature published prior to and in April 2022. Based on primary selected papers after a two-wave literature search, we conducted an initial review, followed by backward search, a second review of the associated results, and a subsequent forward search. Figure 1 graphically summarizes the literature search process.

Figure 1 . Overview of literature search process.

2.1. Search strategy

We conducted a two-wave literature search of five literature databases. We searched ACM Digital Library, IEEE Xplore, Science Direct, Scopus, and Web of Science using a combination of the term “Facebook” in conjunction with terms addressing the negative psychological and physiological effects of Facebook use. This search process yielded a total of 12,061 hits.

The following search term syntax was used to identify empirical studies that addressed the negative effects of Facebook use on a psychological and/or physiological level: (“Facebook”) AND (“psychological” OR “physiological” OR “depress*” OR “anxiety” OR “stress” OR “life satisfaction” OR “self-esteem” OR “loneliness” OR “consequence” OR “outcome” OR “disorder” OR “sleep*”). Note that the asterisk was used to generalize the term for searching when it can have multiple meanings (i.e., depress* includes “depression,” “depressing,” or “depressive” and other terms beginning with “depress”). In the databases IEEE Xplore, Science Direct, Scopus, and Web of Science the search terms could be used by default mode (that covers title, abstract, and keywords) to search for relevant papers. For the ACM database search, the abstract was used to narrow the search for relevant papers.

The first wave of our literature search was conducted in March 2022 and yielded 10,019 hits. The second wave was conducted in April 2022 with the goal of obtaining additional empirical studies on the negative physiological effects of Facebook use. To this end, we repeated our literature search in the mentioned literature databases and included the following physiological keywords [adopted from Riedl et al., 2020 ], resulting in the following search term syntax: (“Facebook”) AND (“Nervous system” OR “Neuro-Information Systems” OR “NeuroIS” OR “Neuroscience” OR “Brain” OR “Diffusion Tensor” OR “EEG” OR “fMRI” OR “Infared” OR “MEG” OR “Morpho*” OR “NIRS” OR “Positron emission” OR “Transcranial” OR “Dermal” OR “ECG” OR “ECG” OR “Electrocardiogram” OR “Electromyography” OR “Eye” OR “Facial” OR “Galvan*” OR “Heart” OR “HRV” OR “Muscular” OR “Oculo*” OR “Skin” OR “Blood” OR “Hormone” OR “Saliva” OR “Urine”). The second wave of our literature search yielded 2,042 hits. Note that NeuroIS is a scientific field which relies on neuroscience and neurophysiological knowledge and tools to better understand the development, use, and impact of information and communication technologies, including SNSs ( Riedl et al., 2020 ).

In summary, search terms were chosen to reflect the topic of this paper in its entirety (e.g., “psychological” and “physiological”). Additionally, specific search terms were used to refer specifically to the psychological and physiological effects (e.g., “depress*” and “stress”). We also used keywords such as “ECG” that are representative of the data collection methods for measuring physiological effects to identify additional studies. In both waves of our literature search, we focused exclusively on peer-reviewed English-language journal and conference papers with no publication date restriction.

2.2. Filtering strategy

The filtering strategy included empirical studies that examined the negative effects of Facebook use on a psychological or physiological level as eligibility criteria. The psychological effects include those that are generally consistent with the 5th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5 Update) published by the American Psychiatric Association (2018) . In addition, loneliness, life satisfaction, and self-esteem were also considered, although they are not included in the DSM-5 Update. They are considered as important psychological indicators and are critical for mental and physical well-being ( Mann et al., 2004 ; Mushtaq et al., 2014 ) and subjective well-being along with life satisfaction ( Pavot and Diener, 1993 ).

“Facebook use” was defined as use of all features of Facebook. Common conceptualizations of Facebook use include time spent on Facebook, number of Facebook friends, number of logins to Facebook, attitudes toward Facebook use, or indicators of an addiction construct consisting of a combination of behavioral and attitudinal variables ( Frost and Rickwood, 2017 ): Therefore, we additionally considered the problematic facets of Facebook use, such as Facebook addiction ( Turel et al., 2014 ) and Facebook intrusion ( Cudo et al., 2019 ). Please note that in the literature Facebook overuse is often assessed via an addiction framework, but as mentioned above, neither Facebook addiction nor problematic Facebook use (the more neutral term) are officially recognized conditions in either DSM-5 ( American Psychiatric Association, 2018 ) or the 11th revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11; World Health Organization, 2019 ). We do not want to go deeper into this discussion here but highlight that we aim to review both papers dealing with use and overuse of Facebook, independently of how the actual nature of overuse will be seen or characterized in a few years.

To be included in this review, we focused exclusively on peer-reviewed studies that empirically investigated negative effects of Facebook use on a psychological or physiological level. After conducting the two-wave literature search, we removed unrelated papers based on title and abstract, which left us with 402 papers. We then removed duplicates, which left us with 236 unique papers, which were then analyzed in-depth based on the full text. During this process, we also developed and applied the exclusion criteria listed in Table 1 to exclude papers that were not adequate in the light of the goal of this review. Following this filtering strategy, 165 unique papers remained for further analysis.

Table 1 . Exclusion criteria for literature review.

2.3. Backward and forward search

The 165 identified papers were then used for a backward search (i.e., searching the references), which yielded 101 additional papers, resulting in a total of 266 unique papers. After applying our exclusion criteria, 72 papers were removed, leaving a total of 194 papers. Next, we conducted a forward search (i.e., citation tracking) based on the 194 papers by using Google Scholar. This part of the search process resulted in 5,984 hits, of which 114 papers were selected for further investigation based on title and abstract, yielding a total of 308 papers. As part of this step, we excluded papers that were not peer-reviewed (e.g., Denti et al., 2012 ; Steggink, 2015 ). After applying our full list of exclusion criteria, 76 papers were removed, leaving a total of 232 papers which constitute the basis of all analyses in the present review.

Overall, this review includes empirical literature on the negative psychological and physiological effects of Facebook use published before and in April 2022. Specifically, 217 papers deal with the negative psychological effects of Facebook use, consisting of 213 journal papers (98%) and 4 conference papers (2%), and the remaining 15 papers (all journal articles) deal with the negative physiological effects of Facebook use. The Supplementary material contains an overview of the N = 232 papers.

3. Review results

In this section, we present the main findings of our review. Our literature search process revealed a total of 232 papers showing that Facebook use is associated with eight psychological effects (perceived anxiety, perceived depression, perceived loneliness, perceived eating disorders, perceived self-esteem, perceived life satisfaction, perceived insomnia, and perceived stress) and three physiological effects (physiological stress, human brain alteration, and affective experience state). Figure 2 graphically summarizes the main findings of our literature search process. The psychological effects of Facebook use are described in detail below, followed by the physiological effects. The Supplementary material provides additional details on the identified studies by construct (i.e., identified psychological and physiological effects), including research design, sample, age, measures, and strength of associations between Facebook use and its effects.

Figure 2 . Overview of main findings of literature search process.

3.1. Psychological effects of Facebook Use

We found 217 empirical studies that examined psychological effects of Facebook use. The 217 studies included 183 cross-sectional studies (85%), 24 longitudinal studies (11%), 5 experimental studies (2%), and 5 studies that conducted a multimethod research design (2%). Our analysis revealed that Facebook use is associated with eight major psychological effects, which we discuss in the following. We summarize the identified papers on the psychological effects of Facebook use with their effect type, based on results which are reported as statistically significant (negative [−], positive [+], no effect [∼] in Table 2 ). To reveal the scope, range, and nature of prior empirical research on how Facebook use is associated with these psychological effects, we considered the research context of the identified studies rather than just the effect direction. For example, we classified the Błachnio et al.’s (2021) paper as a study reporting a negative effect because it found that Facebook intrusion was positively associated with perceived anxiety. Note that we also classified a few papers as “descriptive [/],” referring to studies that reported only descriptive statistics such as frequency distributions associated with Facebook addiction without correlative or more sophisticated statistics ( Jha et al., 2016 ; Norman et al., 2017 ).

Table 2 . Studies on psychological effects of Facebook use.

3.1.1. Perceived anxiety

Forty-seven studies were found that examined the psychological effects of Facebook use on perceived (social) anxiety. Results varied widely, ranging from no effect to a strong effect. The 47 studies included 43 cross-sectional studies (42 surveys and 1 case–control survey), 2 longitudinal studies (2 panel studies), 1 experimental study (1 quasi-experiment), and 1 study that applied a multimethod research design (1 study was a longitudinal panel study and another one an experimental study with a randomized controlled trial (RCT) design).

The results of the review revealed that Facebook addiction was slightly to strongly positively correlated with perceived (social) anxiety ( Koc and Gulyagci, 2013 ; Zaffar et al., 2015 ; Brailovskaia and Margraf, 2017 ; Atroszko et al., 2018 , 2022 ; da Veiga et al., 2019 ; Foroughi et al., 2019 ; Louragli et al., 2019 ; Sotero et al., 2019 ; Xie and Karan, 2019 ; Eşkisu et al., 2020 ; Brailovskaia et al., 2020a , b ; Verseillié et al., 2021 ). Results also suggest that individuals with Facebook addiction are at high risk of developing anxiety ( Hanprathet et al., 2015 ). Further examples of positive effects on perceived (social) anxiety include, for example, Facebook intrusion ( Błachnio et al., 2021 ), lying and liking behavior on Facebook ( Wright et al., 2018 ), number of Facebook friends ( Flynn et al., 2018 ; Nazzal et al., 2021 ), perceived emotional connectedness to Facebook ( Clayton et al., 2013 ), perceived emotional engagement with Facebook ( Verseillié et al., 2021 ), risky and impulsive Facebook use ( Flynn et al., 2018 ), time spent on Facebook ( Labrague, 2014 ; Shaw et al., 2015 ; Flynn et al., 2018 ; Sternberg et al., 2018 ; Nazzal et al., 2021 ), and use of socially interactive features of Facebook ( McCord et al., 2014 ). For individuals who make social comparisons on Facebook, which can lead to a perceived frequency of a negative feeling from social comparisons on Facebook ( Lee, 2014 ), there was a medium positive effect for perceived anxiety. Positive correlations with perceived anxiety were also found to a small to moderate extent for users with passive Facebook use ( Shaw et al., 2015 ; Hanna et al., 2017 ) or problematic Facebook use ( Lee-Won et al., 2015 ; Chabrol et al., 2017 ; Dempsey et al., 2019 ; Nasser et al., 2019 ; Ho et al., 2021a ). Examples of negative effects on perceived (social) anxiety are frequency of Facebook use ( Dempsey et al., 2019 ) or perceived social connectedness from the use of Facebook ( Grieve et al., 2013 ).

No statistically significant effect was found between the following types of Facebook use and perceived (social) anxiety, among others: academic motive for using Facebook ( Koc and Gulyagci, 2013 ), active Facebook use ( Hanna et al., 2017 ), connection as motive for using Facebook ( Rae and Lonborg, 2015 ), daily informational motive for using Facebook ( Koc and Gulyagci, 2013 ), Facebook account length ( Hussain et al., 2019 ; Ögel-Balaban and Altan, 2020 ), friendship as motive for using Facebook ( Rae and Lonborg, 2015 ), information as motive for using Facebook ( Rae and Lonborg, 2015 ), inspection time of Facebook updates ( Hussain et al., 2019 ), inspection time of social updates on Facebook ( Hussain et al., 2019 ), number of activities during Facebook use ( Sternberg et al., 2018 ), perceived frequency of posting on Facebook ( Ögel-Balaban and Altan, 2020 ), social motive for using Facebook ( Koc and Gulyagci, 2013 ), use of Facebook for interactive communication ( Shaw et al., 2015 ), use of socially interactive features of Facebook ( McCord et al., 2014 ; Sillence et al., 2021 ), and weekly time commitment on Facebook ( Koc and Gulyagci, 2013 ). A summary of all effects of the forty-seven studies that examined the psychological effects of Facebook use on perceived (social) anxiety can be found in Table 2 .

3.1.2. Perceived depression

Eighty-nine studies were found that examined the psychological effects of Facebook use on perceived depression. Results varied widely, ranging from no effect to a strong effect. The 89 studies included 76 cross-sectional studies (75 surveys and 1 case–control survey), 10 longitudinal studies (8 panel studies and 2 longitudinal randomized experiments), 2 experimental studies (1 quasi-experiment and 1 experimental study with an RCT design), and 1 study that applied a multimethod research design (1 study was a cross-sectional survey study and another one was a longitudinal study with a time-series design).

Low to high positive effects on perceived depression have been found among individuals who are addicted to Facebook ( Koc and Gulyagci, 2013 ; Hong et al., 2014 ; Zaffar et al., 2015 ; Brailovskaia and Margraf, 2017 ; Khattak et al., 2017 ; da Veiga et al., 2019 ; Damota, 2019 ; Foroughi et al., 2019 ; Kulkarni and Deshpande, 2019 ; Sotero et al., 2019 ; Brailovskaia et al., 2019b , d ; Bais and Reyes, 2020 ; Eşkisu et al., 2020 ; Iovu et al., 2020 ; Rachubińska et al., 2021 ; Verseillié et al., 2021 ; Ho, 2021a ; Atroszko et al., 2022 ) or through perceived social comparisons on Facebook, such as the perceived upward social comparison on Facebook ( Steers et al., 2014 ; Tosun and Kaşdarma, 2020 ; Dibb and Foster, 2021 ). Further positive effects on perceived depression include active private or public Facebook use ( Frison and Eggermont, 2016a , 2020 ), Facebook intensity ( Iovu et al., 2020 ; Ahamed et al., 2021 ; Nazzal et al., 2021 ), Facebook intrusion ( Bendayan and Blanca Mena, 2019 ; Przepiórka and Błachnio, 2020 ; Cudo et al., 2020a , b ), Facebook surveillance ( Scherr et al., 2019 ), liking behavior on Facebook ( Wright et al., 2018 ), passive Facebook use ( Frison and Eggermont, 2016a , 2020 ; Dibb and Foster, 2021 ), perceived negative social support on Facebook ( McCloskey et al., 2015 ), problematic Facebook use ( Walburg et al., 2016 ; Chabrol et al., 2017 ; Dempsey et al., 2019 ; Nasser et al., 2019 ; Ho et al., 2021a ), and time spent on Facebook ( Kang et al., 2013 ; Labrague, 2014 ; Steers et al., 2014 ; Chow and Wan, 2017 ; Scherr and Brunet, 2017 ; Flynn et al., 2018 ; Sternberg et al., 2018 ; Frison et al., 2019 ; Frison and Eggermont, 2020 ; Nazzal et al., 2021 ; Yeshua-Katz and Zilberstein, 2021 ). Also, results suggest that general Facebook use predicts bipolar disorder ( Rosen et al., 2013a , b ).

Examples of negative effects on perceived depression include perceived social comparison when using Facebook actively ( Nisar et al., 2019 ), perceived social connectedness from the use of Facebook ( Grieve et al., 2013 ), perceived social support through Facebook ( Frison and Eggermont, 2015 , 2016a ; Frison et al., 2019 ), perceived upward-identification in social comparison on Facebook ( Kang et al., 2013 ), and relationship maintenance as motive for using Facebook ( Scherr and Brunet, 2017 ). The number of Facebook friends, for example, was both negatively ( Rae and Lonborg, 2015 ; Brailovskaia and Margraf, 2019 ) and positively ( Nazzal et al., 2021 ) associated with perceived depression.

No statistically significant effect was found between the following types of Facebook use and perceived loneliness, among others: Facebook account length ( Locatelli et al., 2012 ; Kang et al., 2013 ), Facebook network size ( Zhang, 2017 ), Facebook session length ( Hussain et al., 2019 ), level of interest in Facebook use ( Kang et al., 2013 ), lying behavior on Facebook ( Wright et al., 2018 ), number of activities during Facebook use ( Sternberg et al., 2018 ), number of Facebook pages a user has marked as like ( Park et al., 2013 ), number of groups on Facebook for which a user is an administrator ( Park et al., 2013 ), number of groups on Facebook to which a user belongs (including groups of which a user is an administrator) ( Park et al., 2013 ), number of interest items listed on the user’s Facebook profile ( Park et al., 2013 ), number of pending incoming friend requests on Facebook ( Park et al., 2013 ), perceived downward social comparison on Facebook ( Dibb and Foster, 2021 ), perceived frequency of writing in discussion groups on Facebook ( Brailovskaia and Margraf, 2019 ), perceived frequency of writing negative status updates on Facebook ( Locatelli et al., 2012 ), perceived frequency of writing online messages on Facebook ( Brailovskaia and Margraf, 2019 ), perceived frequency of writing positive status updates on Facebook ( Locatelli et al., 2012 ), perceived frequency of writing status updates on Facebook ( Locatelli et al., 2012 ; Brailovskaia and Margraf, 2019 ), time spent on Facebook apps (including games) ( Hong et al., 2014 ), time spent on Facebook chat rooms ( Hong et al., 2014 ), time spent on Facebook newsfeeds ( Hong et al., 2014 ), and viewing other Facebook profiles as motive for using Facebook ( Maglunog and Dy, 2019 ). A summary of all effects of the eighty-nine studies that examined the psychological effects of Facebook use on perceived depression can be found in Table 2 .

3.1.3. Perceived loneliness

Forty-six studies were found that examined the psychological effects of Facebook use on perceived loneliness. Results varied widely, ranging from no effect to a strong effect. The 46 studies included 41 cross-sectional studies (40 surveys) and 5 longitudinal studies (4 panel studies and 1 longitudinal randomized experiment).

Very strong positive effects on perceived loneliness were found for perceived upward social comparison on Facebook ( Lim and Yang, 2019 ; Dibb and Foster, 2021 ). Also, a positive medium-strong correlation was found between compensatory Facebook use ( Goljović, 2017 ) or connection as motive for using Facebook ( Clayton et al., 2013 ; Jin, 2013 ) and perceived loneliness. A medium-weak correlation was found between time spent on Facebook ( Skues et al., 2012 ; Lemieux et al., 2013 ; Teppers et al., 2014 ; Kumar et al., 2019 ; Frison and Eggermont, 2020 ; Rahman and Zakaria, 2021 ) and perceived loneliness. Furthermore, Facebook addiction correlates positively with perceived loneliness to a low to moderate level ( Omar and Subramanian, 2013 ; Saleem et al., 2016 ; Błachnio et al., 2016a ; Chavez and Chavez Jr., 2017 ; Goljović, 2017 ; Shettar et al., 2017 ; Atroszko et al., 2018 ; Biolcati et al., 2018 ; Satici, 2019 ; Aung and Tin, 2020 ; Rajesh and Rangaiah, 2020 ; Ho et al., 2021a Ho, 2021a ; Smith and Short, 2022 ). However, Rachubińska et al. (2021) also found a negative correlation between Facebook addiction and perceived loneliness.

A negative effect was found between the number of Facebook friends and perceived loneliness ( Skues et al., 2012 ; Jin, 2013 ; Phu and Gow, 2019 ). That is, the more Facebook friends one has, the lower the feeling of perceived loneliness. Results also indicate that active use of Facebook ( Jin, 2013 ), including connection ( Clayton et al., 2013 ; Jin, 2013 ), maintaining relationships ( Teppers et al., 2014 ), or personal contact ( Teppers et al., 2014 ) as motive for using Facebook can reduce perceived loneliness. Also, results suggest that active posting on Facebook can reduce perceived loneliness ( große Deters and Mehl, 2013 ).

No statistically significant effect was found between the following types of Facebook use and perceived depression, among others: communication as motive for using Facebook ( Aydın et al., 2013 ), Facebook access time via PC ( Ye et al., 2021 ), Facebook access time via smartphone ( Ye et al., 2021 ), following photos, videos, status, comments as motive for using Facebook ( Aydın et al., 2013 ), frequency of Facebook use ( Türkmen et al., 2022 ), new acquaintance as motive for using Facebook ( Aydın et al., 2013 ), number of Facebook logins ( Skues et al., 2012 ), passive engagement on Facebook ( Ryan and Xenos, 2011 ), perceived boredom of use of Facebook ( Phu and Gow, 2019 ), perceived downward social comparison on Facebook ( Dibb and Foster, 2021 ), perceived use experience of Facebook ( Jin, 2013 ), personal contact as motive for using Facebook ( Teppers et al., 2014 ), playing games on Facebook as motive for using Facebook ( Aydın et al., 2013 ), sharing photos, videos, and notifications on Facebook as motive for using Facebook ( Aydın et al., 2013 ), time spent on Facebook for private purposes ( Stieger, 2019 ), use of Facebook chat ( Ahmed, 2018 ), and use of Facebook for news and information ( Ryan and Xenos, 2011 ). A summary of all effects of the forty-six that examined the psychological effects of Facebook use on perceived loneliness can be found in Table 2 .

3.1.4. Perceived eating disorder

Seven studies were found that examined the psychological effects of Facebook use on perceived eating disorder. Results varied widely, ranging from no effect to a strong effect. The 7 studies included 4 longitudinal studies (4 panel studies), 2 cross-sectional studies (2 surveys), and 1 study that applied a multimethod research design (1 study was a cross-sectional survey study and another one was a matched-pair experimental study).

Maladaptive Facebook use was found to be a significant predictor of increases in perceived bulimic symptoms, perceived body dissatisfaction, perceived shape concerns, and perceived episodes of overeating ( Smith et al., 2013 ). Results further indicate that maladaptive Facebook use had moderately strong positive effects on perceived concern about physical shape and weight ( Mannino et al., 2021 ). When Facebook was used to make online comparisons of physical appearance, it had large effects on perceived eating disorder, which means the more comparisons, the more likely the perceived eating disorder ( Walker et al., 2015 ). Perceptions of social comparison on Facebook also correlated significantly positively with perceived food restraint and perceived bulimic symptoms, although perceptions of social comparison on Facebook suggested that perceived bulimic symptoms decreased over time ( Puccio et al., 2016 ). Passive use of Facebook for social comparison ( Mannino et al., 2021 ), perceived negative feedback seeking on Facebook ( Hummel and Smith, 2015 ), personal status updates on Facebook ( Hummel and Smith, 2015 ), and time spent on Facebook ( Mannino et al., 2021 ) showed little to no effect on perceived physical shape concern, perceived concern about weight, or perceived concern about eating. Individuals who spent 20 min on Wikipedia showed greater decreases in perceived concerns about weight and shape than those individuals who spent 20 min on Facebook ( Mabe et al., 2014 ).

Facebook use was not significantly related to the “Eating Attitudes Test-26 (EAT-26)” ( González-Nuevo et al., 2021 ), a screening instrument for eating disorders, dieting, and bulimia ( Garner et al., 1982 ). Similarly, perceived negative feedback seeking on Facebook ( Hummel and Smith, 2015 ) was not associated with perceived dietary restraint ( Hummel and Smith, 2015 ). Also, time spent on Facebook did not significantly correlate with disordered eating behaviors ( Mabe et al., 2014 ). A summary of all effects of the seven that examined the psychological effects of Facebook use on perceived eating disorder can be found in Table 2 .

3.1.5. Perceived self-esteem

Sixty-seven studies were found that examined the psychological effects of Facebook use on perceived self-esteem. Results varied widely, ranging from no effect to a strong effect. The 67 studies included 58 cross-sectional studies (57 surveys and 1 case–control survey), 4 experimental studies (3 experimental studies with an RCT design and 1 quasi-experiment), 3 longitudinal studies (2 panel studies and 1 longitudinal study with a time-series design), and 2 studies that conducted a multimethod research design (specifically a cross-sectional survey study with an experimental study with an RCT design).

Perceptions of social comparison on Facebook, especially perceived upward social comparison on Facebook ( Vogel et al., 2014 ; Lee, 2020 ) and perceived frequency of a negative feeling from social comparisons on Facebook ( Lee, 2014 ) had a strong negative effect on perceived self-esteem ( Lee, 2014 , 2020 ). Facebook addiction also had a particularly negative effect on perceived self-esteem ( Hong et al., 2014 ; Malik and Khan, 2015 ; Błachnio et al., 2016b ; Baturay and Toker, 2017 ; Goljović, 2017 ; Nizami et al., 2017 ; Atroszko et al., 2018 ; Kanat-Maymon et al., 2018 ; Bais and Reyes, 2020 ; Eşkisu et al., 2020 ; Seran et al., 2020 ; Stănculescu and Griffiths, 2021 ; Awobamise et al., 2022 ; Smith and Short, 2022 ; Uram and Skalski, 2022 ). However, different results could be found in this regard. Namely, Sehar et al. (2022) found a strong positive relationship between Facebook addiction and perceived self-esteem. Facebook intensity also had a positive ( Whitman and Gottdiener, 2016 ) and negative ( Błachnio et al., 2016c ; Ahamed et al., 2021 ) effect on perceived self-esteem. Further examples of negative effects on perceived self-esteem include compensatory Facebook use ( Goljović, 2017 ), Facebook fatigue ( Cramer et al., 2016 ), Facebook intrusion ( Błachnio et al., 2019 ; Błachnio and Przepiórka, 2019 ; Przepiórka et al., 2021 ), perceived feeling of connectedness to Facebook ( Tazghini and Siedlecki, 2013 ), perceived frequency of untagging oneself from in photos on Facebook ( Tazghini and Siedlecki, 2013 ), perceived level of Facebook integration into daily activities ( Faraon and Kaipainen, 2014 ), perceived negative activities on Facebook ( Tazghini and Siedlecki, 2013 ), problematic Facebook use ( Tobin and Graham, 2020 ; Primi et al., 2021 ), risky and impulsive Facebook use ( Flynn et al., 2018 ), time spent on Facebook ( Faraon and Kaipainen, 2014 ; Hanna et al., 2017 ; Bergagna and Tartaglia, 2018 ), and use of Facebook for simulation ( Bergagna and Tartaglia, 2018 ). Research also suggests that browsing own Facebook newsfeed ( Alfasi, 2019 ), passive Facebook use ( Hanna et al., 2017 ), and use of Facebook for social comparison ( Ozimek and Bierhoff, 2020 ) are associated with lower perceived self-esteem.

Positive effects on perceived self-esteem included, for example, initiating of online relationships as motive for using Facebook ( Metzler and Scheithauer, 2017 ), liking behavior on Facebook ( Wright et al., 2018 ), number of Facebook friends ( Metzler and Scheithauer, 2017 ), temporary break from Facebook use ( O’Sullivan and Hussain, 2017 ), or use of socially interactive features of Facebook ( Błachnio et al., 2016d ), Facebook users had significantly higher mean score for perceived self-esteem compared to non-Facebook users ( Brailovskaia and Margraf, 2016 ). Individuals who viewed only their own profile reported higher self-esteem than those who viewed other profiles in addition to their own ( Gonzales and Hancock, 2011 ).

No statistically significant effect was found between the following types of Facebook use and perceived self-esteem, among others: active Facebook use ( Hanna et al., 2017 ), active hours on Facebook ( Baturay and Toker, 2017 ), education as intended purpose for using Facebook ( Eşkisu et al., 2017 ), frequency of Facebook use ( Cudo et al., 2020a , b ; Türkmen et al., 2022 ), information search on Facebook ( Castillo de Mesa et al., 2020 ), inspection time of social updates on Facebook ( Hussain et al., 2019 ), lying behavior on Facebook ( Wright et al., 2018 ), mobile Facebook use ( Schmuck et al., 2019 ), number of Facebook logins ( Skues et al., 2012 ), perceived level of activity on Facebook ( Michikyan et al., 2015 ), perceived level of awareness when using Facebook ( Tazghini and Siedlecki, 2013 ), public communication with Facebook friends ( Manago et al., 2012 ), reading on Facebook ( Cramer et al., 2016 ), social interaction as intended purpose for using Facebook ( Eşkisu et al., 2017 ), tolerance of diversity on Facebook ( Castillo de Mesa et al., 2020 ), use and presence of Facebook in life ( Castillo de Mesa et al., 2020 ), and use of Facebook for search for relations ( Bergagna and Tartaglia, 2018 ). A summary of all effects of the sixty-six studies that examined the psychological effects of Facebook use on perceived self-esteem can be found in Table 2 .

3.1.6. Perceived life satisfaction

Forty-four studies were found that examined the psychological effects of Facebook use on perceived life satisfaction. Results varied widely, ranging from no effect to a strong effect. The 44 studies included 37 cross-sectional studies (37 surveys) and 7 longitudinal studies (4 panel studies, 2 longitudinal randomized experiments, and 1 longitudinal study with a time-series design).

Examples of negative effects on perceived life satisfaction at a low to moderate level include various Facebook activities such as looking at other’s photos/videos on Facebook ( Vigil and Wu, 2015 ), tagging photos on Facebook ( Vigil and Wu, 2015 ), or uploading photos on Facebook ( Vigil and Wu, 2015 ). Compensatory Facebook Use ( Goljović, 2017 ), Facebook addiction ( Akın and Akın, 2015 ; Biolcati et al., 2018 ; Satici, 2019 ), Facebook intrusion ( Błachnio et al., 2019 ), passive Facebook use ( Frison and Eggermont, 2016b ), passive following on Facebook ( Wenninger et al., 2014 ), or time spent on Facebook ( Vigil and Wu, 2015 ; Frison and Eggermont, 2016b ; Stieger, 2019 ) were also negatively associated with perceived life satisfaction.

Positive effects on perceived life satisfaction were mainly due to active Facebook use ( Choi, 2022 ), Facebook check-in intensity ( Wang, 2013 ), and general Facebook use ( Basilisco and Cha, 2015 ; Srivastava, 2015 ; Brailovskaia and Margraf, 2016 ). Facebook network size ( Manago et al., 2012 ), number of Facebook friends ( Nabi et al., 2013 ; Srivastava, 2015 ; Vigil and Wu, 2015 ; Lönnqvist and große Deters, 2016 ), number of Facebook hours per week ( Cudo et al., 2020a , b ), perceived social attention on Facebook ( Adnan and Mavi, 2015 ), or perceived social connectedness from the use of Facebook ( Grieve et al., 2013 ) also influenced perceived life satisfaction in positive ways. A 20-min reduction in daily Facebook time produced a steady increase in perceived life satisfaction scores over a three-month period ( Brailovskaia et al., 2020a , 2020b ). Furthermore, one study showed that increasing Facebook use over time is associated with lower perceived life satisfaction ( Kross et al., 2013 ). This finding is consistent with another study that found perceived life satisfaction increased after a one-week absence from Facebook ( Tromholt, 2016 ). In contrast to these results, Facebook users had significantly higher mean scores for perceived life satisfaction compared to non-Facebook users ( Brailovskaia and Margraf, 2016 ).

No statistically significant effect was found between the following types of Facebook use and perceived life satisfaction, among others: commenting on Facebook ( Wenninger et al., 2014 ), communication as motive for using Facebook ( Adnan and Mavi, 2015 ), connection as motive for using Facebook ( Rae and Lonborg, 2015 ), Facebook account length ( Locatelli et al., 2012 ; Kang et al., 2013 ), friendship as motive for using Facebook ( Rae and Lonborg, 2015 ), information as motive for using Facebook ( Adnan and Mavi, 2015 ; Rae and Lonborg, 2015 ), information search on Facebook ( Castillo de Mesa et al., 2020 ), level of interest in Facebook use ( Kang et al., 2013 ), liking on Facebook ( Wenninger et al., 2014 ), mobile Facebook use ( Schmuck et al., 2019 ), perceived frequency of writing status updates on Facebook ( Locatelli et al., 2012 ), private communication with Facebook friends ( Manago et al., 2012 ), and use and presence of Facebook in life ( Castillo de Mesa et al., 2020 ). A summary of all effects of the forty-four studies that examined the psychological effects of Facebook use on perceived life satisfaction can be found in Table 2 .

3.1.7. Perceived insomnia

Sixteen studies were found that examined the psychological effects of Facebook use on perceived insomnia. Results varied slightly, ranging from no effect to a small effect. The 16 studies included 15 cross-sectional studies (15 surveys) and 1 longitudinal study (1 panel study).

Facebook addiction was significantly positively associated with perceived poorer sleep quality ( Wang et al., 2021 ; Ho, 2021a ; Ho et al., 2021a ), perceived insomnia ( Koc and Gulyagci, 2013 ; Brailovskaia et al., 2019a ), and perceived sleep disturbance ( Ho, 2021b ). Furthermore, research showed that problematic Facebook use was significantly positively correlated with perceived poorer sleep quality ( Ho et al., 2021a ). Indeed, daily Facebook use was significantly positively correlated with perceived insomnia over time ( Brailovskaia et al., 2019a ). Such findings are supported by other research, which found that Facebook intrusion was positively associated with perceived sleep problems ( Przepiórka and Błachnio, 2020 ) and perceived insomnia ( Błachnio et al., 2021 ). Additionally, one study showed that Facebook addiction was also significantly negatively associated with perceived sleep quality ( Atroszko et al., 2018 ), and another study concluded that individuals with a Facebook addiction were at high risk of developing insomnia ( Hanprathet et al., 2015 ).

No statistically significant effect was found between the following types of Facebook use and perceived insomnia, among others: academic motive for using Facebook ( Koc and Gulyagci, 2013 ), daily Facebook use ( Brailovskaia et al., 2019a ), daily informational motive for using Facebook ( Koc and Gulyagci, 2013 ), social motive for using Facebook ( Koc and Gulyagci, 2013 ), and weekly time commitment on Facebook ( Koc and Gulyagci, 2013 ). A summary of all effects of the sixteen studies that examined the psychological effects of Facebook use on perceived insomnia can be found in Table 2 .

3.1.8. Perceived stress

Twenty-seven studies were found that examined the psychological effects of Facebook use on perceived stress. Results varied widely, ranging from no effect to a strong effect. The 27 studies included 24 cross-sectional studies (24 surveys) and 3 longitudinal studies (3 panel studies).

Results show that perceived stress was primarily very strongly associated with Facebook addiction. For example, Brailovskaia et al. (2019a) found a very strong correlation between Facebook addiction and daily stress in both the U.S. and German samples. A strong positive correlation was also found in the study by Brailovskaia et al. (2019c) . Moreover, Facebook addiction correlated with stress at low ( Brailovskaia and Margraf, 2017 ; Atroszko et al., 2018 , 2022 ; Eşkisu et al., 2020 ; Verseillié et al., 2021 ; Balcerowska et al., 2022 ) and medium ( Brailovskaia et al., 2018b ; Ho, 2021b ) levels. Further positive effects on perceived stress at low and/or moderate levels include Facebook intensity ( O’Sullivan and Hussain, 2017 ; Pal et al., 2018 ; Brailovskaia et al., 2019c ; Nazzal et al., 2021 ), perceived emotional engagement with Facebook ( Verseillié et al., 2021 ), perceived online social support received from other Facebook users ( Brailovskaia et al., 2019a ), perceived social comparison on Facebook ( Flynn et al., 2018 ), problematic Facebook use ( Nasser et al., 2019 ; Ho et al., 2021a ), and risky and impulsive Facebook use ( Flynn et al., 2018 ). However, one study found a significant negative correlation between the number of Facebook friends and perceived stress ( Nabi et al., 2013 ), albeit at a low level.

No statistically significant effect was found between the following types of Facebook use and perceived stress, among others: Facebook account length ( Bevan et al., 2014 ; Hussain et al., 2019 ), Facebook session length ( Hussain et al., 2019 ), inspection time of Facebook updates ( Hussain et al., 2019 ), inspection time of social updates on Facebook ( Hussain et al., 2019 ), lying behavior on Facebook ( Wright et al., 2018 ), and temporary break from Facebook use ( O’Sullivan and Hussain, 2017 ). A summary of all effects of the twenty-seven studies that examined the psychological effects of Facebook use on perceived stress can be found in Table 2 .

3.2. Physiological effects of Facebook Use

We found 15 empirical studies that examined physiological effects of Facebook use. The 15 studies included 7 experimental studies (47%), 6 longitudinal studies (40%), and 2 cross-sectional studies (13%). Our analysis revealed that Facebook use is associated with three major physiological effects, which we discuss in the following. We summarize the identified papers on the physiological effects of Facebook use with their effect type, based on results which are reported as statistically significant (negative [−], positive [+], no effect [∼] in Table 3 ). To reveal the scope, range, and nature of prior empirical research on how Facebook use is associated with these physiological effects, we considered the research context of the identified studies rather than just the effect direction. For example, we classified the studies by Campisi et al. (2012 , 2017) as reporting negative effects because they found that increasing Facebook network size was positively associated with an increasing upper respiratory infections rate. Note that we also classified one paper as “descriptive [/]” ( He et al., 2017 ).

Table 3 . Studies on physiological effects of Facebook use.

3.2.1. Physiological stress

Nine studies examined the effects of Facebook use on physiological stress. Results varied widely, ranging from no effect to a strong effect. The 9 studies included 5 longitudinal studies (4 longitudinal studies with a time-series design and 1 longitudinal randomized experiment) and 4 experimental studies (3 experimental studies with an RCT design and 1 quasi-experiment).

The aim of the study by Afifi et al. (2018) was to determine the effects of technology and media use on stress and inflammation. At the beginning of the study, each participant completed a questionnaire and kept a diary of technology and media use, nighttime technology use, and hours of sleep from Monday to Friday. Saliva samples were used to determine cortisol and inflammation levels. Saliva samples were collected immediately after waking in the morning, 30 min after waking, at noon, and immediately before bedtime. Two main effects of Facebook use on stress and inflammation were found in the adolescents. With increasing Facebook use, cortisol awakening response and inflammation levels increased.

Campisi et al. (2012) investigated the association between Facebook use and upper respiratory infections (URI). Survey analysis revealed that most participants had difficulty completing their study assignments due to the high levels of stress they had experienced in the previous 3 months. The average number of infections during the 10-week period was 2.5 infections per person. The results also suggest that the Facebook network size (i.e., number of Facebook friends) had an impact on the frequency of URIs, and also on the average number of URIs per person. In addition, there was a significant relationship between the occurrence of URIs and the feeling of anger or sadness when someone ended their Facebook friendship. Facebook-induced stress had no significant effect on the frequency of URIs or on the average number of URIs per individual. Campisi et al. (2012) argued that chronic stress can affect the immune system. Users who are stressed by Facebook use may therefore have a weakened immune system.

In another study, Campisi et al. (2017) examined whether the interaction between Facebook use and stress can be explained by Facebook users’ behavior. To record the occurrence of URIs, participants had to keep a weekly diary for 10 weeks. Analysis of the data revealed a strong influence of social network size on the average number of URIs per person. Participants who experienced anxiety or stress due to Facebook use had a significantly higher number of URIs compared to individuals who did not experience Facebook-induced anxiety or stress. Also, there was a significant positive correlation between the number of Facebook logins per day and the number of URIs.

The study by Cipresso et al. (2019) sought to determine whether the psychological stress of navigating one’s own Facebook profile was higher, lower, or the same as navigating the profiles of other users. Physiological measurements were used to assess participants’ psychophysiological state. Participants were instructed to move freely on Facebook for 5 min. This allowed them, for example, to click on anything and go to any page within their own Facebook account. Eye-tracking data was collected to determine whether participants were viewing content that was related to themselves or to content that was related to others. Results showed that psychological stress increased significantly when viewing content that is related to oneself compared to viewing content that is related to others. Cipresso et al. (2019) reached this conclusion based on decreased heart rate variability, increased sympathetic component, and increased sympathovagal balance.

Moreno et al. (2014) investigated whether the biological response to stress is influenced by Facebook use and undertook a characterization of participants’ Facebook use during a stressful event. The biological response was measured using salivary cortisol samples and a radial pulse measurement. The cortisol level increased in the Facebook group, while it decreased in the control group. In the Facebook group, the pulse increased more compared to the control group and stabilized toward the end of the experimental session. However, there were no significant differences in either the Facebook group or the control group with respect to the change in cortisol level or pulse. The male participants in the Facebook group had above-average pulse values and showed increased biological signs of stress during a stressful event, which were predominantly attributed to the distracting use of Facebook.

The aim of the study by Morin-Major et al. (2016) was to examine the relationships between adolescents’ basal levels of diurnal cortisol and various Facebook behaviors, specifically frequency of use, self-expression, peer interaction, and network size. Cortisol levels were measured on two nonconsecutive weekdays over a three-week period. Significant correlations existed between Facebook network size and cortisol awakening response, systemic cortisol output, and perceived stress. In addition, frequency of Facebook use correlated with perceived stress, and perceived stress correlated with cortisol awakening response and systemic cortisol output. Sensitivity analyses were also conducted to examine which diurnal cortisol timeframe was most strongly associated with Facebook behavior. Morin-Major et al. (2016) found that Facebook network size was significantly positively associated with cortisol awakening response, which included changes from awakening to 30 min after. However, no associations were found between Facebook behavior and the decline in cortisol levels from supper time to bedtime.

Rus and Tiemensma (2017) investigated the influence of Facebook in terms of reactivity to an acute social stressor. They used both physiological (saliva samples, blood pressure, and heart rate) and psychosocial measures (Facebook use, mood, well-being, and subjective stress) to measure changes in physiological and subjective stress, as well as use behavior. As a result of the acute stressor (Trier Social Stress Test, TSST; Kirschbaum et al., 1993 ), participants experienced changes in both physiological and subjective stress. However, individuals who belonged to the Facebook user group surprisingly responded to the stressor with lower levels of physiological stress (systolic blood pressure) as well as lower levels of psychosocial stress. The same outcome was observed in the recovery phase. Based on the results, Rus and Tiemensma (2017) concluded that Facebook use prior to experiencing an acute stressor may have a buffering effect, particularly with respect to psychosocial stress.

In another study, Rus and Tiemensma (2018) examined how Facebook use affects recovery from stress (induced by the TSST; Kirschbaum et al., 1993 ). At the beginning of the study, participants completed a questionnaire about the intensity of Facebook use (measured with the Facebook Intensity Scale; Ellison et al., 2007 ). To examine the effect of Facebook use on a stress response, participants were then randomly assigned to either use their own Facebook account (experimental condition) or to use optional digital reading material for 20 min (control condition) before subsequently undergoing a TSST. To measure physiological markers of stress in response to the TSST, saliva samples were collected at baseline and at various time points during the study, blood pressure and heart rate were measured continuously, and psychosocial stress was assessed in the form of self-reports at various time points during the study. Upon completion of the TSST, all participants had 30 min of recovery as well as access to the digital reading material provided in the control condition. During the recovery phase, participants in both groups experienced similar changes in psychosocial stress. However, physiological recovery was inhibited in the Facebook group. This group had higher cortisol levels compared to the control group. Effects of Facebook use on blood pressure, heart rate, and psychosocial stress were not detected despite the elevated cortisol levels. Although individuals in the experimental group showed a sustained physiological stress response, participants in this group reported recovering as well as the subjects in the control group. Altogether, Rus and Tiemensma (2018) showed that Facebook use can delay or impair recovery after a stressor.

Vanman et al. (2018) determined whether a five-day Facebook break would reduce both stress and subjective well-being. Participants filled out surveys at the beginning of the study to assess stress and well-being. This was followed by taking the first saliva sample. Next, a program randomly assigned study participants to one of two conditions: One group was instructed to use Facebook as usual until the second session, while the other group was not allowed to use Facebook. At the beginning of the study, there was no difference between the cortisol levels of the two groups. However, later there was a decrease in cortisol levels in the group without Facebook. In contrast, cortisol levels in the Facebook group remained relatively unchanged. Thus, Vanman et al. (2018) showed that even a five-day Facebook break can lead to lower cortisol levels. However, the individuals who abstained from Facebook for 5 days reported lower levels of life satisfaction compared to the Facebook group.

3.2.2. Human brain alteration

Three studies were found that examined the effects of Facebook use on human brain alteration. Results varied widely, ranging from no effect to a strong effect. The 3 studies included 2 cross-sectional studies (1 cross-sectional screening survey study and 1 case–control screening survey study) and 1 longitudinal study (1 longitudinal study with a time-series design).

The aim of the study by He et al. (2017) was to investigate the relationship between excessive social media use and gray matter volume in key neural systems. For this purpose, the behavioral pattern of social media use of the 50 study participants was determined by a Facebook-specific adaptation of the Compulsive Internet Use Instrument ( Meerkerk et al., 2009 ; Turel et al., 2014 ), and participants were then categorized into a low or high behavior pattern of excessive social media use using a median split. The results of the region-of-interest analysis showed that in the case group (relatively high scores for excessive Facebook use compared to control group with relatively low scores), gray matter volume was decreased in both the bilateral amygdala and the right ventral striatum compared to the control group. There was a negative correlation between excessive Facebook use and the gray matter volume of the left amygdala, right amygdala, and right ventral striatum. No differences or correlations were found in prefrontal regions between the two groups.

The study by He et al. (2018) examined the association between excessive social media use and the impaired integrity of the white matter of the corpus callosum. After participants completed a questionnaire on demographics, data on Facebook use, and excessive Facebook use, as well as a structural magnetic resonance imaging (sMRI) scan was collected. Region-of-interest analysis revealed significant positive correlations between excessive Facebook use and mean diffusivity in both the body and the splenium of corpus callosum. However, the correlation with the mean diffusivity in the body of corpus callosum and excessive Facebook use was no longer significant after FDR correction. Also, fractional anisotropy of the right corticospinal tract and mean diffusivity of the left superior longitudinal fasciculus, inferior longitudinal fasciculus, and left forceps minor correlated positively with excessive Facebook use. Correlations between the mean diffusivity in the genu of corpus callosum and excessive Facebook as well as fractional anisotropy in the body, genu and splenium of corpus callosum and excessive Facebook use were not significant.

Montag et al. (2017) investigated the relationship between actual Facebook use and the nucleus accumbens. The nucleus accumbens, the major component of the ventral striatum, plays an important role in mediating emotion and motivation and modulating reward and pleasure processing, and also functions as an important limbic-motor interface ( Cohen et al., 2009 ; Salgado and Kaplitt, 2015 ). It has also been linked to numerous neurological and psychiatric disorders, including depression, Parkinson’s disease, anxiety disorders, and substance abuse and dependence ( Salgado and Kaplitt, 2015 ). Participants underwent sMRI at the beginning of the study and completed a questionnaire to determine addictive tendencies when using online social networks. Then, a self-developed application called “Menthal” was installed on the smartphone of all participating subjects to record user behavior on smartphones (for details of the application, please see Andone et al., 2016a , b ). This application was used to record the duration of daily Facebook use and the frequency of daily Facebook app use over a five-week period. Significant negative correlations were found between both the duration of Facebook use and the gray matter volume of the left and right nucleus accumbens and between the frequency of Facebook use and the gray matter volume of the left and right nucleus accumbens. To control for brain volume, Montag et al. (2017) performed an additional calculation in which the ratio between the nucleus accumbens of the left/right hemisphere and the gray matter of each hemisphere was calculated. A significant relationship regarding Facebook use duration could only be found for the gray matter volume of left accumbens. The frequency of Facebook use correlated significantly with both the gray matter volume of left accumbens and the right accumbens. No significant correlation was found between the duration and frequency of Facebook use and the gray matter volumes of the left or right amygdala or hippocampus as control regions.

3.2.3. Affective experience state

Three studies were found that examined the physiological effects of Facebook use on affective experience state. Results varied, ranging from a small effect to a strong effect. The 3 studies included 3 experimental studies (2 experimental studies with an RCT design and 1 quasi-experiment).

Cipresso et al. (2015) investigated users’ subjective experience of Facebook navigation via PC and via smartphone using physiological measurements. All participants underwent three conditions, namely relaxation, free navigation on Facebook, and stress (in the form of performing a Stroop task). Results show that Facebook was not perceived as disruptive, rather it was perceived as positive and activating. Facebook was found not to cause stress, instead eliciting positive emotional valence along with increased physiological arousal during Facebook navigation.

Mauri et al. (2011) examined whether Facebook use elicited a specific psychophysiological activation pattern. As an initial stimulus, participants were shown a series of panoramic images for relaxation. They were then allowed to move freely on Facebook for 3 min. This was followed by a stress phase, which included a Stroop task and a math task. The Facebook navigation scores showed different trends, except for the scores related to breathing and EEG beta waves. These were almost exactly between the values for relaxation and stress. Skin conductance values for Facebook navigation were very similar to the stress condition. Moreover, regarding the heart interbeat interval, the relaxation and Facebook conditions were almost identical. The lowest values for pupil dilation (less dilation is interpreted as less activation of the sympathetic part of the autonomic nervous system) and electromyography activity from Corrugator Supercilii were measured during Facebook navigation (note that Corrugator Supercilii muscle activity is considered a measure of emotional valence; it usually decreases in response to positive emotions and it increases in response to negative emotions; e.g., Neta et al., 2009 ). Thus, this study found that there was a significant difference between the Facebook experience and the relaxation and stress conditions for many indices of somatic activity, and that Facebook use produced a state characterized by positive emotion and high arousal.

The study by Rauch et al. (2014) examined the effects of Facebook exposure through a subsequent face-to-face situation with a stimulus person on physiological arousal levels. Approximately 1 week prior to the experimental session, participants were asked to complete a social anxiety survey. During the experimental session, skin conductance was used to measure physiological arousal levels while exposed to a person via Facebook, face-to-face, or both. Results showed that prior exposure to a Facebook stimulus led to increased physiological arousal during a face-to-face contact, especially in individuals with high social anxiety.

4. Review discussion

We contribute to research by providing an in-depth comprehension of the scope, range, and nature of the existing literature on the negative psychological and physiological effects of Facebook use. Specifically, we report evidence on how Facebook use is associated with eight identified psychological (perceived anxiety, perceived depression, perceived loneliness, perceived eating disorders, perceived self-esteem, perceived life satisfaction, perceived insomnia, and perceived stress) and three physiological (physiological stress, human brain alteration, and affective experience state) effects. Overall, the literature search process represents a systematic and methodologically rigorous process for examining the psychological and physiological effects of Facebook use.

The social network of Facebook is used for various reasons, such as communication ( Aydın et al., 2013 ), entertainment ( Ögel-Balaban and Altan, 2020 ), friendship ( Rae and Lonborg, 2015 ), or social inclusion ( Teppers et al., 2014 ). The main implication for research is that the results of this review suggest that the various psychological and physiological effects depend on the type of Facebook use. Facebook addiction, as a negative consequence of an excessive and uncontrolled Facebook use, is highly associated with the identified effects. For example, a significant positive association was found between Facebook addiction and perceived stress ( Brailovskaia et al., 2019c ). Negative psychological and physiological effects caused by excessive and uncontrolled Facebook use behavior may also develop over time. As evidence for this conclusion, we rely on a longitudinal study by Brailovskaia and Margraf (2017) , who found a significant positive association between Facebook addiction and perceived anxiety, perceived depression, and perceived stress in a German student sample over a one-year period, although the extent of Facebook use did not change noticeably. The same study also revealed that the number of individuals with problematic Facebook use behavior can increase significantly within 1 year. However, research has also found approaches to counteract the negative effects. For example, a study by Brailovskaia et al. (2020b) found that reducing daily Facebook use even over a 14-day period can significantly reduce depressive symptoms while significantly increasing life satisfaction. This finding is supported by other studies that showed that a temporary absence from Facebook can significantly increase life satisfaction ( Tromholt, 2016 ) and also reduce the cortisol level as indicator of physiological stress ( Vanman et al., 2018 ). Given the potential risks of excessive and uncontrolled Facebook use, this review therefore provides a fundamental understanding of the psychological (see Table 2 ) and physiological (see Table 3 ) effects of Facebook use based on empirical research.

From a practical perspective, our paper highlights the importance of the knowledge on the negative psychological and physiological effects of Facebook use. We note, though, that the results are also temporary in nature, as research in this area will also face new challenges. One of these challenges, which has been increasingly observed in scientific research and practice in recent years, is the individual habit of constantly checking IT devices for new information to stay always up-to-date ( Stangl and Riedl, 2023c ). In this regard, mobile technologies (e.g., smartphone) are particularly problematic, as auditory and/or visual notifications ( Tams et al., 2020 ) have the potential to contribute to the development of addictive behavioral tendencies (e.g., looking at the smartphone every few minutes for a new SNS notification; Sha et al., 2019 ). Here, insights into the appearance of different modalities of Facebook-induced notifications would also be valuable for interruption science, an interdisciplinary research field that systematically investigates the prevalent phenomenon of interruptions ( Stangl and Riedl, 2023b , 2023e ). However, research has shown that users turn on their smartphone screens 88 times a day, with SNSs accounting for the majority of the average 2.5 h of mobile phone usage ( Markowetz, 2015 ). Such behavior may be considered as an additional excessive and uncontrolled Facebook use behavior, which Keller et al. (2021) characteristically refers to as “lack of control about one’s smartphone use” (p. 2). As an implication for practice, further research activities and findings on the negative psychological and physiological effects of Facebook use, including a focus on mobile technologies, are therefore particularly valuable, which in turn will lead to the discovery of additional SNS-relevant constructs.

4.1. Potentials for future research activities

Building on the research results of our scoping review, we derived five major potentials for future research activities.

Potential 1: Additional Neuroscientific and Neurophysiological Studies – As first potential for future research activities, we highlight the value of neuroscientific and neurophysiological studies to further investigate Facebook use behavior and the identified psychological and physiological effects of Facebook use. Indeed, to determine how and why certain psychological or physiological effects occur during Facebook use, neuroscience and neurophysiological tools and methods used in the interdisciplinary scientific field of NeuroIS can contribute to enhancing our understanding of human cognition, emotion, and behavior ( Riedl et al., 2010 , 2014 , 2017 ; Dimoka et al., 2012 ; Riedl and Léger, 2016 ). For example, Triệu et al. (2021) used eye-tracking data and found that individuals with more social content on their Facebook newsfeed who spent a longer time viewing other Facebook postings and clicking more on other Facebook postings reported lower self-esteem than individuals who used Facebook less intensively. From a methodological perspective, however, NeuroIS studies usually combine data from neurophysiological measurements with self-report data to investigate underlying effects and users’ cognitive and affective processes in human-computer interaction in more detail ( Loos et al., 2010 ; Riedl et al., 2010 , 2014 , 2017 ; Dimoka et al., 2012 ; Riedl and Léger, 2016 ). As an example, Morin-Major et al. (2016) examined Facebook use behavior by combining salivary cortisol samples as a physiological measure and self-reported data collected with validated questionnaires measuring psychological measures. Therefore, to better understand Facebook use and its underlying behavior, future research activities using neuroscientific and neurophysiological knowledge and tools seems promising to expand and systematically examine in more detail our understanding of the psychological and physiological effects of Facebook use and its consequences.

Potential 2: Insights through Digital Phenotyping and Mobile Sensing Principles – Digital phenotyping and mobile sensing refer to studying a person’s digital footprints as an extended phenotype of a person ( Jain et al., 2015 ) providing insights into diverse psychological characteristics ( Baumeister and Montag, 2023 ). In particular, people’s digital footprints on Facebook, which are produced in the course of creating and maintaining personal profiles, can provide revealing information about many psychologically relevant characteristics such as personality ( Marengo and Montag, 2020 ), perhaps even into human neurobiology ( Montag et al., 2021b ) and further our understanding of molecular processes in the human brain ( Montag and Quintana, 2023 ), with the latter giving way to digital biomarkers. While the term “digital biomarker” is currently poorly defined in the literature ( Montag et al., 2021a ), digital biomarkers have the potential to provide direct insights into underlying human neurobiology ( Montag et al., 2021b ), which is relevant given the increasing importance of the consumer-centric perspective in digital health ( Agarwal et al., 2020 ). For example, it has been shown that Facebook language data can be used to predict and diagnose early stage of depression ( Eichstaedt et al., 2018 ), a condition being critically linked to diverse brain processes ( Fries et al., 2023 ). From a NeuroIS perspective, however, neurophysiological data, such as heart rate and heart rate variability as physiological indicators measuring autonomic nervous system activity, can additionally contribute to a deeper understanding for various measurement purposes, such as perceived anxiety or perceived stress ( Stangl and Riedl, 2022b ). Here, measures related to the brain and human body in general could also gain relevance in future empirical research on digital detoxing ( Stangl and Riedl, 2023d ), which is a strategy to counteract the negative effects of digital technology use; this topic has received significant attention in both scientific research and practice in the recent past ( Mirbabaie et al., 2022 ). Digital detoxing involves temporary or complete disengagement from digital technologies (e.g., temporary abstinence from Facebook), along with strategies to reduce exposure to them (e.g., reduction in time spent on Facebook) ( Hager et al., 2023 ; Stangl and Riedl, 2023a , d ).Importantly, ongoing technological progress has also opened up many possibilities of mobile measurements for biomarker detection and monitoring ( Baumeister and Montag, 2023 ), such as novel methods (e.g., smart clothing) for data collection of physiological indicators ( Stangl and Riedl, 2022a ). However, general quality criteria for measurement methods in psychometrics and psychophysiology ( Riedl et al., 2014 ), such as reliability and validity of wearable devices ( Stangl and Riedl, 2022c ), along with ethical, legal, and societal implications ( Dagum and Montag, 2019 ; Montag et al., 2020a ) need to be carefully considered and assessed beforehand. Future research activities using digital biomarkers as part of a neuroscientific study design to establish associations between human neurobiology and the digital footprints generated by users’ interactions to explore negative psychological and physiological effects of Facebook use behavior, though, appear promising for advancing research in this area.

Potential 3: Insights through Multimethod Research – As a third potential for future research, we emphasize the possibilities of multimethod research. In fact, the results of our review show that most studies on Facebook use behavior are cross-sectional survey studies (80%), while only a small proportion of all studies are longitudinal (13%), experimental (5%), or studies with a multimethod research design (2%). An example of multimethod research is the study by Ozimek and Bierhoff (2020) , who used an experimental study with an RCT design and two survey studies to investigate short-term and long-term effects of using Facebook for comparative social comparison on self-esteem and depressive tendencies. This research approach showed both correlational and experimental evidence of a mediating association between Facebook use and depressive tendencies via ability-related comparisons and lower self-esteem. Another conceivable approach is the use of neurophysiological measures, which can play an important role in research designs as complementary and supplementary measures to gain a deeper understanding of the cognitive and affective processes that occur when individuals interact with Facebook. This perspective is also supported by seminal contributions to the NeuroIS research agenda (e.g., Dimoka et al., 2012 ). Drawing upon the neuroscience and neurophysiological tools and methods used in NeuroIS, researchers have a variety of measurement approaches at their disposal to study human neurophysiology in the context of Facebook use behavior. The instruments and methods that are applicable in such a research context can be broadly divided into measurement of the central nervous system, measurement of the peripheral nervous system, and measurement of the hormone system (for an overview of neurophysiological tools with a discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of each measurement method per research setting, please see Riedl & Léger (2016 , pp. 47-72); for a more detailed discussion of methods used in cognitive neuroscience, please see Senior et al. (2009) . However, consistent with the finding of another recent descriptive literature review of neuroscience research on human-smartphone interactions and the digital footprints users leave in their interactions with SNSs ( Montag et al., 2021b ), neuroscience research tends to be a laggard as a research approach for examining Facebook use behavior. In fact, our review found only 14 studies (i.e., Mauri et al., 2011 ; Moreno et al., 2014 ; Rauch et al., 2014 ; Cipresso et al., 2015 , 2019 ; Morin-Major et al., 2016 ; He et al., 2017 , 2018 ; Montag et al., 2017 ; Rus and Tiemensma, 2017 , 2018 ; Afifi et al., 2018 ; Vanman et al., 2018 ; Triệu et al., 2021 ) that applied neurophysiological measurements in their study. Therefore, research that considers neurophysiological measures as an adjunct in the context of multimethod research offers a promising future research activity to examine Facebook use behavior in a more detailed and systematic manner.

Potential 4: Extension of Review Results – The fourth potential for future research activities relates to the extension of our review results. In this review, we considered the empirical literature on the negative psychological and physiological effects of Facebook use published before and in April 2022. An extended analysis of empirical studies on other SNSs such as Instagram or Twitter, though, may lead to further insights into the negative psychological and physiological effects of SNSs. This is of particular relevance, because social media platforms differ in their designs/addictive potential and might attract also different user groups ( Marengo et al., 2020 ; Rozgonjuk et al., 2021b ): Statistics show that global audiences of SNSs differ by age and gender. For example, 9.3 percent of the Facebook audience was women aged 18 to 24 ( Statista, 2022b ), with the Instagram audience in that demographic accounting for 13.4% ( Statista, 2022c ). Extending our review methodology with a focus on other SNSs may reveal additional negative SNS-related constructs, providing a bird’s eye view of negative psychological and physiological effects of SNSs. Another conceivable approach is to replicate our review methodology in the future. As research on Facebook use behavior continues to encounter new aspects over time, even the negative psychological and physiological constructs we identified are to some extent transitory. However, future desktop research that either extends our research findings to other SNSs using our research methodology or replicates our original review methodology may uncover additional SNS-relevant constructs to the negative psychological and physiological effects we identified. Overall, the opportunities highlighted to extend our review findings are another promising activity for future research.

Potential 5: Considering the Data Business Model – Much research in the past has not focused on the actual culprit impacting in negative ways upon human behavior and society including development of addictive behaviors when interacting with social media platforms such as Facebook ( Montag and Hegelich, 2020 ): The current prevailing model to pay for use allowance of a social media service foresees that users pay with their data, which in turn is used for microtargeting. This data business model, also named surveillance capitalism ( Zuboff, 2015 ), led to the creation of highly immersive platforms which have been designed over many years via AB-testing ( Montag et al., 2019 ). Understanding why humans act as they do on the social media platforms needs to take into account the design elements in-built on these platforms ( Sindermann et al., 2022 ). This is often very difficult at the moment, as APIs are often closed and so social media remains a black box ( Montag et al., 2021a ). Studying digital footprints of online users (see also Potential 2) when they are interacting with the platform by also using ecological momentary assessment reports will be of tremendous importance to understand the effects of social media use on well-being and other psychological variables. A meta-analysis showed that assessment of technology use via self-report and objective recordings can differ ( Parry et al., 2021 ). For further complexities in this research area see also the work by Kross et al. (2021) and Montag et al. (2021d) . Finally, we mention that Potential 5 - as outlined in this section - will be also of high relevance to understand what healthier social media environments might look like ( Dhawan et al., 2022 ).

4.2. Mitigation of validity concerns of research results

The evaluation of the planning process is an essential step in assessing the validity of a research result ( Henderson and Sifonis, 1988 ; Straub, 1989 ). To validate our scoping review methodology as a data collection method to identify the negative psychological and physiological effects of Facebook use based on the current state of scientific research, we slightly modified the instrumental validity types of Becker et al. (2013) to evaluate potential validity threats of our literature search process. This allowed us to identify four major validity concerns, which we were, however, able to mitigate accordingly in relation to our review and its methodology.

1. Descriptive Validity: This validity type indicates the extent to which observations accurately reflect the phenomenon of interest. To mitigate this threat, we consider our applied literature search process to data collection to be as comprehensive as possible. It also enables us to continuously renew data collection. The literature base identified in this way is listed in the Supplementary material to objectify the process of data collection.

2. Theoretical Validity: This validity type indicates the extent to which the true scope of a phenomenon of interest has been captured. To mitigate this threat, we carefully designed the search string by systematically combining Facebook with general psychological and physiological as well as field-specific search terms to find empirical studies that addressed the negative effects of Facebook use on a psychological and physiological level, thereby capturing the topic of this paper in its entirety. Also, the identified papers were then analyzed collaboratively by the author team to avoid bias in data extraction and classification.

3. Interpretive Validity: This validity type indicates the extent to which the conclusions relate precisely to a phenomenon of interest. To mitigate this threat, we relied on and drew conclusions from data obtained from our literature search. The data obtained in this way is listed in the Supplementary material to objectify the process of data analysis.

4. Repeatability: This validity type indicates the extent to which the data of the research process are accurate and consistent when performed repeatedly. To mitigate this threat, we described the research process in detail. We have also transparently presented all the data we received during the literature search process, such as an overview of the identified studies by construct (i.e., identified psychological and physiological effects), including time scale with research design, participants with country, sample size with female share, age, Facebook use measure(s), and strength of associations between Facebook use and its effects.

5. Concluding statement

The goal of this scoping review was to examine the scope, range, and nature of prior research on the negative psychological and physiological effects of Facebook use. Our systematic and methodologically rigorous literature search process allowed us to identify eight psychological effects (perceived anxiety, perceived depression, perceived loneliness, perceived eating disorders, perceived self-esteem, perceived life satisfaction, perceived insomnia, and perceived stress) and three physiological effects (physiological stress, human brain alteration, and affective experience state) of Facebook use. Overall, this review lays a valuable foundation for future research activities, as it also captures characteristics of prior empirical research by construct, including research design, sample, age, measures, and strength of associations between Facebook use and its effects for better understanding Facebook use from psychological and physiological perspectives.

Consistent with the findings of a recent article on the influence of SNS use on well-being ( Verduyn et al., 2022 ), our review revealed that Facebook use may be beneficial to some extent on a psychological or physiological level. However, the (over-)use of Facebook also poses a myriad of detrimental and significant risks, both psychologically (see Table 2 ) and physiologically (see Table 3 ). It is therefore crucial to study Facebook use behavior in a more detailed and systematic manner, as prior empirical studies have shown that excessive and uncontrolled use behavior can lead to the development of problematic Facebook use with various negative psychological and physiological effects. To this end, we have described potential avenues for future research. Importantly, we anticipate that future research may also identify additional SNS-related constructs and user characteristics (e.g., personality) that moderate these effects. Future research should also consider experimental designs with neurophysiological measurements as complements to self-report and behavioral measures to draw more definitive conclusions about the effects (see Potential 1 and Potential 3). Moreover, future studies must not ignore potential changes in Facebook’s business model, because such changes may have significant effects on addictive behaviors that result from interaction with the specific features of the Facebook app (see Potential 5). Also, technological progress may increasingly allow longitudinal studies to discover and establish associations between human neurobiology and digital footprints generated by user interactions to examine and even detect early negative psychological and physiological effects of Facebook use behavior in a consumer-centric perspective of digital health (see Potential 2). Another promising activity for future research is to extend our findings to other SNSs (e.g., Instagram, Snapchat, or Twitter), which would provide a bird’s eye view of negative psychological and physiological effects that could also lead to the discovery of additional SNS-related constructs (see Potential 4). Thus, it will be interesting to see how scientific research on the psychological and physiological effects of Facebook use will continue to develop.

Author contributions

RR was responsible for funding acquisition and conceptualized the study. FS and RK reviewed the literature under supervision of RR and CM. All authors wrote the manuscript together, and thus contributed to the manuscript. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

RR’s research is funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) as part of the project “Technostress in Organizations” (project number: P 30865) and by the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) as part of the project “Interruption” at the University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the Associate Editor and the two reviewers for their excellent work in providing guidance on ways to improve the paper. Also, we would like to thank Sarah Ann Grafinger for proofreading.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher’s note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Supplementary material

The Supplementary material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1141663/full#supplementary-material

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Keywords: brain, Facebook, Neuro-Information-Systems, review, social networking sites, stress

Citation: Stangl FJ, Riedl R, Kiemeswenger R and Montag C (2023) Negative psychological and physiological effects of social networking site use: The example of Facebook. Front. Psychol . 14:1141663. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1141663

Received: 10 January 2023; Accepted: 03 May 2023; Published: 03 August 2023.

Reviewed by:

Copyright © 2023 Stangl, Riedl, Kiemeswenger and Montag. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: René Riedl, [email protected]

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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Facebook's own data is not as conclusive as you think about teens and mental health

Anya Kamenetz

On Tuesday, Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen testified before a Senate panel. The hearing's focus was advertised as "protecting kids online."

"I believe that Facebook's products harm children," she said in her opening statement, saying that the documents she published proved that Facebook's "profit optimizing machine is generating self-harm and self-hate — especially for vulnerable groups, like teenage girls." Facebook spokesperson Andy Stone noted on Twitter during the hearing that Haugen "did not work on child safety or Instagram or research these issues and has no direct knowledge of the topic from her work at Facebook."

Researchers have worked for decades to tease out the relationship between teen media use and mental health. Although there is debate, they tend to agree that the evidence we've seen so far is complex, contradictory and ultimately inconclusive. That is equally true of Facebook's internal marketing data, leaked by Haugen, as it is of the validated studies on the topic.

Opinion versus fact

The leaked Facebook research consists of opinion surveys and interviews. Facebook asked teens about their impressions of Instagram's effect on their body image, mental health and other issues.

That reliance on self-reporting — the teens' own opinions — as a single indicator of harm is a problem, says Candice Odgers, a psychologist who studies adolescence at University of California, Irvine and Duke University. That's because teenagers are already primed by media coverage, and the disapproval of adults, to believe that social media is bad for them.

Whistleblower tells Congress that Facebook products harm kids and democracy

Odgers was a coauthor of a study conducted in 2015 and published in 2020 that found exactly this. "If you ask teens if they are addicted/harmed by social media or their phones, the vast majority say yes," she tells NPR. "But if you actually do the research and connect their use to objective measures ... there is very little to no connection." With the exception of a small increase in behavior problems, her study found no real world connections between smartphone or social media use and several different measures of psychological distress and well-being. "At the population level," the paper concluded, "there was little evidence that digital technology access and use is negatively associated with young adolescents' well-being."

Small numbers

Odgers' paper was peer-reviewed. It had 2,100 participants. It's just one of hundreds of studies published over decades on children and adolescents' media use and well-being. This research started with radio, moved on to television, video games and now social media. All along the way, large peer-reviewed studies have found few correlations. "It's mostly null," Odgers says.

The Facebook research was not peer-reviewed or designed to be nationally representative, and some of the statistics that have received the most attention were based on very small numbers.

According to Facebook's own annotations of the leaked slides, the finding broadly reported as "30% of teen girls felt Instagram made them feel worse about their bodies" was based on 150 respondents out of a few thousand Instagram users surveyed. They only answered the question about Instagram's role if they had already reported having body image issues. So the finding does not describe a random sampling of teenage girls, or even all the girls in the survey. It's a subset of a subset of a subset.

In another of the Facebook surveys , out of more than 2,500 teenage Instagram users surveyed in the U.K. and U.S., 16 total respondents reported suicidal thoughts that they said started with Instagram. Because of the way this data was sliced and diced in Facebook's internal slides, those 16 people, less than 1% of all respondents, became the ultimate source of stories that reported 6% of teens in the U.S. and 13% in the U.K. blamed Instagram for suicidal thoughts.

Vicious and virtuous circles

Vicky Rideout is an independent researcher who has published more than two dozen studies on young people and media use. She says it's "a useless distraction" to compare the confrontation with Facebook to the showdown over Big Tobacco, as senators have been doing at these hearings. That's for two reasons: because the evidence is nowhere near as strong, and because social media — unlike cigarettes — can be beneficial as well as harmful.

The Scientific Debate Over Teens, Screens And Mental Health

One of Rideout's 2021 studies on teens, unlike Facebook's internal findings, used a nationally representative sample and used a recognized scale to measure depression. In her study, 43% of respondents said using social media usually makes them feel better — not worse — when they're depressed, stressed or anxious. Less than half as many, 17%, said it usually makes them feel worse. The rest said it makes no difference either way.

Rideout's research suggests that there is a small group of severely depressed teenagers for whom social media has a bigger impact for better and for worse. She thinks they should be a focus of future research.

Both Rideout and Odgers say that rather than get stuck in an endless loop of doomscrolling over small, inconclusive results, the public conversation on social media and teens needs to move toward solutions. They would like to see companies like Facebook put resources toward designing and testing positive interventions.

5 Strategies For Coping With Screen-Obsessed Kids

Some ideas researchers are currently looking at: connecting young people with information about mental wellness or health; promoting accounts that have been shown to make people feel better about themselves; or prompting teens to check in with peers who are having a rough day.

"There really are a lot of teens suffering from depression, and they really do use a lot of social media, and social media really does play an outsized role in their lives," says Rideout. "If there are concrete steps that Instagram or any other social media company can take to elevate the positive and diminish the negative aspects of their platforms, that's something we should support."

Editor's note: Facebook is among NPR's financial supporters and since publishing her book, The Art of Screen Time, Kamenetz's husband took a job with Facebook. He works in an unrelated division.

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Does facebook make people unhappy, a new study synthesizing information from almost 1 million people gives answers..

Posted August 21, 2023 | Reviewed by Davia Sills

• Congressional testimony, documentaries, and media suggest social media like Facebook causes unhappiness.
• New research synthesizes data from Facebook and Gallup on almost 1 million people to estimate this connection.
• The researchers find that increasing Facebook use in a country is not associated with negative outcomes.
• Overall, there's no one big effect of Facebook on well-being. More detailed analyses are needed.

Social media , in general, and Facebook (now called Meta), in particular, have been linked to problems in society in recent years. In Congressional testimony, a former Facebook employee acted as a whistle-blower, revealing that internal analyses suggested that more Facebook use was associated with poorer mental health. The use of Instagram—a platform also owned by Facebook—was related to young girls developing eating disorders. YouTube has been associated with the radicalization of political beliefs, especially those related to white nationalism and the alt-right. White nationalists now pose the largest terrorist threat to U.S. citizens.

It seems like one of the broad takeaways from research and the national conversation around social media in recent years is this: Social media, particularly Facebook, is bad for people.

But is that true?

Newly published research combines data from Facebook and Gallup to examine the link between Facebook use and well-being across 72 countries. This dataset synthesizes information from close to 1 million people, representing an enormous sample that can provide very good estimates of the association between well-being and Facebook use. Before I reveal their conclusions, let me explain how they did the study. If you were in one of the university classes I taught, I would ask you to think—as you read—about what you predict the outcome of the analysis would be. Given how the researchers did their study, what would you expect?

The researchers measured Facebook use across countries using data from Facebook on Daily Active Users (DAUs) and Monthly Active Users (MAUs). These are what you’d expect: the number of people logging in daily and monthly from a given country. (If you’re playing along, you might be considering now what that’s missing. Does it capture how long they spend on the platform? What kind of content—political outrage, photos of friends’ perfectly curated lives, silly memes and puns, etc.—are people seeing and engaging with?)

The researchers measured well-being through several questions collected by Gallup. The well-being measure was a single question, essentially a 10-point rating scale, on how happy you are with your life. They also measured positive and negative daily experiences. These questions asked about experiences the day before.

Given enough interviews conducted on enough random days, this method should be able to capture how people’s daily lives tend to be in general in a given country. Positive questions asked things like, “Did you smile and laugh a lot yesterday?” Negative questions asked things like, “Did you experience worry during a lot of the day yesterday?”

Again, if you’re playing along at home, consider what this study is and isn’t capturing. It’s not looking at mental health outcomes—which has been a key point related to people’s negative opinions about Facebook. It’s also not looking at specific problematic—or positive—attitudes people might develop on Facebook. So they didn’t ask whether people had less trust in public institutions or less trust in their neighbors and community. They also didn’t ask whether people felt like they had good coping skills or were better informed.

The analysis looked at the relationship between Facebook use and well-being across 72 countries from 2008 to 2019. If Facebook use was higher, did people have higher or lower well-being in that country and year? They could do this within a country—meaning, as a country gained more Facebook users, did well-being start to decline? They could also do this between countries—meaning, did the countries with more users have lower well-being than those with fewer users?

I’ve walked through the details of the study because the results are surprising—especially to someone who’s been following the media narrative developing around Facebook over the years. As countries gained more Facebook users, there was no change in well-being, the number of positive experiences, or the number of negative experiences. Facebook didn’t make things worse.

When you look between countries, the results are also striking: Countries with more Facebook users had more well-being, more positive experiences, and fewer negative experiences. This might tempt us to say that Facebook actually improved countries where it was adopted, but the researchers were careful to point out that this is probably not the case. Rather, rich countries where people have a lot of access to technology and free time to use Facebook were both more likely to have more Facebook users and to experience greater well-being. But that’s likely because of their money and free time, as opposed to because of the great benefits Facebook provides.

So is Facebook a problem?

Does it disrupt society and cause mass unhappiness? The simple answer is that, on the whole, Facebook itself is not good or bad. When all of the aspects of Facebook are considered together, we don’t find that it makes people any more or less happy.

But think about what considering Facebook as a whole involves. Using Facebook means watching political rants and seeing violent images and rhetoric about political outgroups—but it also means getting to see your newborn nephew and marvel at how quickly he grew in his first month of life. Using Facebook means comparing yourself to professional photoshoots of your high school classmate’s engagement—but it also means seeing that your work friend’s band played a good gig at a bar near your apartment.

There isn’t one clear effect of Facebook because Facebook is a platform that has all kinds of communities and niches. Negative effects from angry content are being averaged in with positive effects from keeping up with friends, which are also being averaged in with neutral content, like a birthday reminder or a meme that didn’t really resonate with you. This study suggests that banning Facebook overall isn’t likely to improve people’s quality of life. Instead, we will have to get a bit more nuanced in what aspects of Facebook and what patterns of use do and don’t contribute to well-being.

Vuorre, M., & Przybylski, A. K. (2023). Estimating the association between Facebook adoption and well-being in 72 countries. Royal Society Open Science , 10 (8), 221451.

Alexander Danvers, Ph.D. , is a social psychologist by training with an interdisciplinary approach to research. Currently, he works on measuring and improving mental health outcomes.

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The Negative Effects of Facebook: Addiction, Social Isolation, and Depression

Facebook is great for communication, networking and planning events. It is a social media platform that was designed to connect people and clearly, it achieves this in a number of ways. However, Facebook’s utility and popularity often mask its more psychologically damaging aspects, of which there seems to be three: addiction, social isolation and depression.

A study by Andreassen et al. (2012), published in  Psychological Reports , developed a ‘Facebook Addiction Scale’. In the study, a group of Facebook users were asked a series of questions and if their answer to at least four of the questions was ‘often’ or ‘very often’, these users were deemed to be addicts. The participant was asked to answer how often the following have happened during the last year:

• Spent a lot of time thinking about Facebook or planned use of Facebook?
• Used Facebook in order to forget about personal problems?
• Felt an urge to use Facebook more and more?
• Become restless or troubled if you have been prohibited from using Facebook?
• Used Facebook so much that it has had a negative impact on your job/studies?
• Tried to cut down on the use of Facebook without success?

Again, if four out of six of these questions are answered with ‘often or ‘very often’, then a harmless Facebook habit is no longer harmless, but an addiction. Indeed, you can remove the word ‘Facebook’ from each of the questions and replace it with anything else which is habit-forming – gambling, sex, drugs – and the respective answers will also be a good indication of an addiction.

Personally, I could probably answer two or three of the questions with ‘often’, so I wouldn’t have a Facebook Addiction Disorder (FAD), a term which is gaining popularity, but I might still have a Facebook habit. The fact that I feel a compulsion to check Facebook constantly and have trouble going one day without it suggests that I probably do have a Facebook habit. I’m sure it’s the same for millions of other Facebook users. For a minority, the situation is a lot worse. Some people do not just feel compelled to use Facebook, but their Facebook use has become so out of control that it interferes with work, studies, relationships and normal social functioning. This is the point when a habit turns into an addiction or a pathological disorder.

A habit is not without negative effects as well. Feeling a compulsion to use Facebook, becoming restless without it and being unable to cut down on how often you use it can stop you from doing more fulfilling activities. There was a point when I intentionally limited myself to use Facebook once a day, only to check for messages from friends or for updates on future events. I maintained it for a while, but it was a conscious effort. Now I’ve found myself getting back into the habit of scrolling down the News Feed, wasting my time looking into other people’s lives and gaining nothing positive from it. This time could be better spent.

In a study conducted by Diana Tamir from Harvard University , it was found through fMRI scans that disclosing information about oneself is intrinsically rewarding. Using social media sites can be addictive because they allow us to do exactly this. This study provides evidence for the theory that individuals place a high subjective value on opportunities to communicate their thoughts and feelings to others and that doing so acts on the reward systems in our brain. The fMRI scans revealed that this kind of self-disclosure does in fact release dopamine (the ‘pleasure chemical’) in our brain. I wouldn’t be surprised if future studies found that there is a release of dopamine when one receives a notification on Facebook. We might automatically register the notification as a response to our thoughts and feelings and dopamine could be released as a result.

Another negative effect of Facebook, which in a way stems from the problem of habitual use and addiction, is social isolation. The irony of Facebook is that it is a force for greater isolation and loneliness, as well as greater connectivity. Sure, Facebook can allow us to communicate with old friends, classmates and people from all over the world, but the nature of interaction on Facebook is conducive to more social isolation. Instead of face-to-face interaction with people we know well, we are content with cyber-interaction with people we don’t know that well.

And even if we are interacting with close friends and family on Facebook, this is still no substitute for real-life social interactions; the kind which our mind is geared towards. The problem with habitual or addictive Facebook use is that many people do come to accept this as a substitute. The more time we spend in the artificial social world of Facebook, the more isolated we will become. We are a social species and we depend on hearing another’s voice and seeing each other’s facial expressions and body language for proper human interaction. Facebook and other social media platforms just don’t meet these requirements.

Furthermore, as future generations begin to use Facebook at a younger age, social skills which are picked up from face-to-face interaction will become harder to develop. Could social media, therefore, be partly to blame for the rise in cases of social anxiety? That said, similar worries were voiced about the telephone. I think that social media definitely can (and does) make a lot of us more socially isolated, but this does not mean that it cannot be used responsibly and in a beneficial way. This study , for example, concludes that Facebook is useful because it can create and maintain ‘social capital’ (networks of relationships) and actually contribute to psychological well-being in this way. 

The most obvious way in which Facebook socially isolates us is the way in which we obsessively go on Facebook on our smartphones. In social situations, even with our closest friends and family members, we almost instinctively reach for our smartphone to check the latest updates on Facebook. Our attention is then glued to this screen, feeding us this cyber-reality and everything else around us becomes non-existent. I’m no exception to this. But I still recognise how unnatural and depressing it is when a group of people are sitting in a room or at a restaurant or at an event, and all are silently peering into the lives of people they barely know. Conversation and social skills are being eroded by social media and smartphones. This increase in social isolation is psychologically harmful to us – being the social species that we are – and it can result in us becoming more depressed.

Facebook can give us instant gratification through self-disclosure and checking notifications, but the social isolation that results can make us depressed in the long-term. There is some evidence that links Facebook use to low life satisfaction.  A study by Ethan Kross et al. (2013) published in PLS One  found that the more that people used Facebook, the worse their subjective well-being was. Interacting with other people directly (face-to-face or by phone) was not linked to these negative subjective feelings.  Another study by researchers from two German universities  suggests that Facebook-related depression is caused by envy. The authors argue that Facebook is an engine for creating envy on an unprecedented scale.

Facebook creates a false picture of reality in which users are bombarded by photos and updates which give them the impression that everyone is living a much better life than they are. Not many people share photos or information which puts their lives in a negative light. Facebook stirs up such an intense feeling of envy, the researchers argue, that it can negatively affect the life satisfaction of users; especially passive users. People who don’t use Facebook that often, except to read the posts and view the photos of others, are likely to become more envious, frustrated and have lower self-esteem than more involved users. Most envied were the holiday photos that people post, followed by social interactions, such as a friend getting more birthday wishes than you did.

This is different from normal face-to-face relations, where envy results from the success, talents and possessions of others. On Facebook, envy can proliferate much more easily and can make people feel much worse about their own lives. In conclusion, Facebook, like all technological advances, has benefits and risks; it just depends on how we use it. 

You may also enjoy:

A personal experiment: living without facebook, reddit and youtube, the mental health burden of student debt, glitchy portraits by justin bower: an exploration of humanity’s relationship with technology, psychedelics, masculinity, and mental health, 10 comments.

Thank you, needed this for debating

thank u.. helpful for ma presentation

thank you helped me with my essay

Thank you very much

this is nicely done. Thank you for elaborating some points, helps a lot in our argumentative research paper

Thanks for publishing this.it probably took you days to make this wonderful presentation.you have explained your pints very well.i am grade 4 and I am making a speech.now that I have read it,I feel anticipation when making my grade4 speech.really helpful!

thanks perfect points for my debate

thank you very much I got all the points I needed to support my statement

We find out many things by means of social media. We become more socialized through getting to know more people, finding out about events and such. Far from everybody sees the real danger of social networks though. They cause addiction, jealousy, depression, isolation of sorts and even suicide in some extra difficult cases. Facebook is not that easy as it seems to be at first. Consider all the minuses of such kind of a social life before you create an account.

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Social media harms teens’ mental health, mounting evidence shows. what now.

Understanding what is going on in teens’ minds is necessary for targeted policy suggestions

Most teens use social media, often for hours on end. Some social scientists are confident that such use is harming their mental health. Now they want to pinpoint what explains the link.

Carol Yepes/Getty Images

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By Sujata Gupta

February 20, 2024 at 7:30 am

In January, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook’s parent company Meta, appeared at a congressional hearing to answer questions about how social media potentially harms children. Zuckerberg opened by saying: “The existing body of scientific work has not shown a causal link between using social media and young people having worse mental health.”

But many social scientists would disagree with that statement. In recent years, studies have started to show a causal link between teen social media use and reduced well-being or mood disorders, chiefly depression and anxiety.

Ironically, one of the most cited studies into this link focused on Facebook.

Researchers delved into whether the platform’s introduction across college campuses in the mid 2000s increased symptoms associated with depression and anxiety. The answer was a clear yes , says MIT economist Alexey Makarin, a coauthor of the study, which appeared in the November 2022 American Economic Review . “There is still a lot to be explored,” Makarin says, but “[to say] there is no causal evidence that social media causes mental health issues, to that I definitely object.”

The concern, and the studies, come from statistics showing that social media use in teens ages 13 to 17 is now almost ubiquitous. Two-thirds of teens report using TikTok, and some 60 percent of teens report using Instagram or Snapchat, a 2022 survey found. (Only 30 percent said they used Facebook.) Another survey showed that girls, on average, allot roughly 3.4 hours per day to TikTok, Instagram and Facebook, compared with roughly 2.1 hours among boys. At the same time, more teens are showing signs of depression than ever, especially girls ( SN: 6/30/23 ).

As more studies show a strong link between these phenomena, some researchers are starting to shift their attention to possible mechanisms. Why does social media use seem to trigger mental health problems? Why are those effects unevenly distributed among different groups, such as girls or young adults? And can the positives of social media be teased out from the negatives to provide more targeted guidance to teens, their caregivers and policymakers?

“You can’t design good public policy if you don’t know why things are happening,” says Scott Cunningham, an economist at Baylor University in Waco, Texas.

Increasing rigor

Concerns over the effects of social media use in children have been circulating for years, resulting in a massive body of scientific literature. But those mostly correlational studies could not show if teen social media use was harming mental health or if teens with mental health problems were using more social media.

Moreover, the findings from such studies were often inconclusive, or the effects on mental health so small as to be inconsequential. In one study that received considerable media attention, psychologists Amy Orben and Andrew Przybylski combined data from three surveys to see if they could find a link between technology use, including social media, and reduced well-being. The duo gauged the well-being of over 355,000 teenagers by focusing on questions around depression, suicidal thinking and self-esteem.

Digital technology use was associated with a slight decrease in adolescent well-being , Orben, now of the University of Cambridge, and Przybylski, of the University of Oxford, reported in 2019 in Nature Human Behaviour . But the duo downplayed that finding, noting that researchers have observed similar drops in adolescent well-being associated with drinking milk, going to the movies or eating potatoes.

Holes have begun to appear in that narrative thanks to newer, more rigorous studies.

In one longitudinal study, researchers — including Orben and Przybylski — used survey data on social media use and well-being from over 17,400 teens and young adults to look at how individuals’ responses to a question gauging life satisfaction changed between 2011 and 2018. And they dug into how the responses varied by gender, age and time spent on social media.

Social media use was associated with a drop in well-being among teens during certain developmental periods, chiefly puberty and young adulthood, the team reported in 2022 in Nature Communications . That translated to lower well-being scores around ages 11 to 13 for girls and ages 14 to 15 for boys. Both groups also reported a drop in well-being around age 19. Moreover, among the older teens, the team found evidence for the Goldilocks Hypothesis: the idea that both too much and too little time spent on social media can harm mental health.

“There’s hardly any effect if you look over everybody. But if you look at specific age groups, at particularly what [Orben] calls ‘windows of sensitivity’ … you see these clear effects,” says L.J. Shrum, a consumer psychologist at HEC Paris who was not involved with this research. His review of studies related to teen social media use and mental health is forthcoming in the Journal of the Association for Consumer Research.

Cause and effect

That longitudinal study hints at causation, researchers say. But one of the clearest ways to pin down cause and effect is through natural or quasi-experiments. For these in-the-wild experiments, researchers must identify situations where the rollout of a societal “treatment” is staggered across space and time. They can then compare outcomes among members of the group who received the treatment to those still in the queue — the control group.

That was the approach Makarin and his team used in their study of Facebook. The researchers homed in on the staggered rollout of Facebook across 775 college campuses from 2004 to 2006. They combined that rollout data with student responses to the National College Health Assessment, a widely used survey of college students’ mental and physical health.

The team then sought to understand if those survey questions captured diagnosable mental health problems. Specifically, they had roughly 500 undergraduate students respond to questions both in the National College Health Assessment and in validated screening tools for depression and anxiety. They found that mental health scores on the assessment predicted scores on the screenings. That suggested that a drop in well-being on the college survey was a good proxy for a corresponding increase in diagnosable mental health disorders. 

Compared with campuses that had not yet gained access to Facebook, college campuses with Facebook experienced a 2 percentage point increase in the number of students who met the diagnostic criteria for anxiety or depression, the team found.

When it comes to showing a causal link between social media use in teens and worse mental health, “that study really is the crown jewel right now,” says Cunningham, who was not involved in that research.

A need for nuance

The social media landscape today is vastly different than the landscape of 20 years ago. Facebook is now optimized for maximum addiction, Shrum says, and other newer platforms, such as Snapchat, Instagram and TikTok, have since copied and built on those features. Paired with the ubiquity of social media in general, the negative effects on mental health may well be larger now.

Moreover, social media research tends to focus on young adults — an easier cohort to study than minors. That needs to change, Cunningham says. “Most of us are worried about our high school kids and younger.” 

And so, researchers must pivot accordingly. Crucially, simple comparisons of social media users and nonusers no longer make sense. As Orben and Przybylski’s 2022 work suggested, a teen not on social media might well feel worse than one who briefly logs on. 

Researchers must also dig into why, and under what circumstances, social media use can harm mental health, Cunningham says. Explanations for this link abound. For instance, social media is thought to crowd out other activities or increase people’s likelihood of comparing themselves unfavorably with others. But big data studies, with their reliance on existing surveys and statistical analyses, cannot address those deeper questions. “These kinds of papers, there’s nothing you can really ask … to find these plausible mechanisms,” Cunningham says.

One ongoing effort to understand social media use from this more nuanced vantage point is the SMART Schools project out of the University of Birmingham in England. Pedagogical expert Victoria Goodyear and her team are comparing mental and physical health outcomes among children who attend schools that have restricted cell phone use to those attending schools without such a policy. The researchers described the protocol of that study of 30 schools and over 1,000 students in the July BMJ Open.

Goodyear and colleagues are also combining that natural experiment with qualitative research. They met with 36 five-person focus groups each consisting of all students, all parents or all educators at six of those schools. The team hopes to learn how students use their phones during the day, how usage practices make students feel, and what the various parties think of restrictions on cell phone use during the school day.

Talking to teens and those in their orbit is the best way to get at the mechanisms by which social media influences well-being — for better or worse, Goodyear says. Moving beyond big data to this more personal approach, however, takes considerable time and effort. “Social media has increased in pace and momentum very, very quickly,” she says. “And research takes a long time to catch up with that process.”

Until that catch-up occurs, though, researchers cannot dole out much advice. “What guidance could we provide to young people, parents and schools to help maintain the positives of social media use?” Goodyear asks. “There’s not concrete evidence yet.”

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Negative psychological and physiological effects of social networking site use: The example of Facebook

Affiliations.

• 1 Digital Business Institute, School of Business and Management, University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria, Steyr, Austria.
• 2 Institute of Business Informatics - Information Engineering, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Linz, Austria.
• 3 Department of Molecular Psychology, Institute of Psychology and Education, Ulm University, Ulm, Germany.
• PMID: 37599719
• PMCID: PMC10435997
• DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1141663

Social networking sites (SNS), with Facebook as a prominent example, have become an integral part of our daily lives and more than four billion people worldwide use SNS. However, the (over-)use of SNS also poses both psychological and physiological risks. In the present article, we review the scientific literature on the risk of Facebook (over-)use. Addressing this topic is critical because evidence indicates the development of problematic Facebook use ("Facebook addiction") due to excessive and uncontrolled use behavior with various psychological and physiological effects. We conducted a review to examine the scope, range, and nature of prior empirical research on the negative psychological and physiological effects of Facebook use. Our literature search process revealed a total of 232 papers showing that Facebook use is associated with eight major psychological effects (perceived anxiety, perceived depression, perceived loneliness, perceived eating disorders, perceived self-esteem, perceived life satisfaction, perceived insomnia, and perceived stress) and three physiological effects (physiological stress, human brain alteration, and affective experience state). The review also describes how Facebook use is associated with these effects and provides additional details on the reviewed literature, including research design, sample, age, and measures. Please note that the term "Facebook use" represents an umbrella term in the present work, and in the respective sections it will be made clear what kind of Facebook use is associated with a myriad of investigated psychological variables. Overall, findings indicate that certain kinds of Facebook use may come along with significant risks, both psychologically and physiologically. Based on our review, we also identify potential avenues for future research.

Keywords: Facebook; Neuro-Information-Systems; brain; review; social networking sites; stress.

Copyright © 2023 Stangl, Riedl, Kiemeswenger and Montag.

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The Top 10 Bad Outcomes of Social Media Use, According to Students

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The downsides of social media use are getting a lot of attention in 2024.

The year started with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg getting grilled in a congressional hearing about the negative impact of social media use on children. The U.S. House passed a bill in March to ban the use of TikTok in the United States, and the Senate is considering a similar measure. And at the end of March, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed one of the country’s most restrictive state social media bans for minors that is scheduled to go into effect in January.

Addressing adolescents’ worsening mental health recently has become a top priority for school, district, state, and federal leaders as young people struggle with record-high rates of depression and anxiety. And much of the conversation around the mental health crisis has centered on young people’s constant use of cellphones and social media.

“Children have been sold this belief that the more [social media] connections they have, the better off they are,” said Lisa Strohman , a clinical psychologist who specializes in technology-overuse issues and is featured in Education Week’s Technology Counts report. [But] their relationships are not deep, they’re not authentic.”

As part of its Technology Counts report, the EdWeek Research Center surveyed 1,056 high school students across the country about a whole host of issues related to social media use. The survey was conducted Feb. 9 through March 4.

One question asked students what negative consequences they had experienced as a result of their social media use. The question gave them 25 possible options to pick from. Here is a look at the top 10 answers:

1.    I believed information I later learned was fake.

2.    i was too tired to do what i needed to do because i didn't get enough sleep., 3.    i have used social media, but i cannot think of any negative outcomes i experienced as a result., 4.    i got in trouble with my parents/family/home., 5.    my self-esteem got worse., 6.    i was bullied., 7.    i embarrassed myself., 8.    i lost a friend or friends., 9.    it made me feel more isolated/alone., 10.    my grades/test scores got worse..

Data analysis for this article was provided by the EdWeek Research Center. Learn more about the center’s work.

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Facebook’s Negative and Positive Effects on Children Essay

Introduction, positive effects of facebook on children, negative effects of facebook on children, illustration.

Social networking is the most important tool in modern day communication and advertising. One such great social media is Facebook that has numerous subscribers worldwide. However, the question that needs to be answered concerning the social networking is the required subscription age. This essay is mainly going to reflect on the negative effect of Facebook on children but also acknowledges some of the positive aspects associated with Facebook.

Facebook as platform has very many applications which can enable a child to interact with his/her peers as well as developing technical skills. Through Facebook blogs, teenagers may discover opportunities in community projects or activities which may in turn assist them to discover new potential and identity.

The cost of travelling is very high. Therefore, travelling from one place to another with children to visit friends or relatives is becoming uneconomical. Facebook has provided a solution this problem through live chatting, photo exchange and videos. Thus facebook has provided a good substitute for which children can interact with their peers and friends – regardless of the distance- at a minimum cost.

Facebook comes with a full package of games, group invitations, multiple friends request, videos and other applications that keeps the user entertained as he or she is in the network. Ritualistic involvement and Periodic usage of such applications leads to social networking addiction.

This creates obsession and thus deprives an individual of the normal and real life. This is dangerous to a growing child as it denies him/her the privilege of coming face to face with person. Moreover, such addiction interferes with a child’s study or school life. This mostly happens when children opt to Facebook instead of studying. Reduced study time and concentration in school work leads to persistently poor grades and loss of interest in formal education.

In normal conversations or dialogues, an individual can say one thing but the tone of voice or body expression incorporated with the statements may actually alter the enter meaning of the words. However, Facebook involves mainly the use of text and graphics to communicate; it therefore lessens a child’s time for social interaction and renders the child out of place in practical verbal communications and social skills.

Therefore as a child grows, based on Facebook mode of communication, he/she will never have the opportunity to practically learn how to interpret facial expressions, body language and emotions. This can be damaging to real life relationship between the child and the parents or greater society at large.

Facebook uses all forms of languages and expressions that are efficient and effective to users. For example, use of initials like ‘LOL’ to mean ‘lots of love’ to a particular group and something else to a different group. However, such form of language is not standard or universal hence considered group specific.

In case the parents decide to move from a different environmental setting, children adapted to one particular type of communication may find it extremely difficult to integrate with children in the new environment. Therefore, such code language or slung affects social accommodation and assimilation of children in different localities.

There are millions of users on Facebook who login or upload materials at given time. Despite the measures in place, such large numbers of persons and uploaded materials are not easily manageable.

A child using Facebook is therefore exposed to all kinds of information. Unlike an adult, a child lacks the required experience and self control and hence cannot be in a position properly evaluate or discriminate between useful and harmful information. Furthermore, most children or minors using Facebook are on the experimental age, 11-15 years, and with the socially hidden nature of sexuality, any information regarding sexuality is considered to be the gospel truth.

Hence, children exposed to sexually inappropriate content and alcoholism or drugs through videos, pictures and messages or comments attached to such contents result in practicing what they see. As a consequence of such exposure, early involvement in teenage sexual activities, teen pregnancy, and teenage drug and alcohol use and abuse have increased.

Long hours of social networking daily, without exercise, will result in gaining weight or being overweight. Moreover, through Facebook children do encounter images or videos of famous person especially movie stars whom they would try as much as possible to associate with them in personality and appearance.

These forms the acceptable standards and every child Facebook members affirm to. However, this can lead to narcissistic personality disorders – where children feel their appearance is inadequate or unacceptable to others. For example, female teenagers who are perceived to be fat are considered less beautiful or male teenagers who don’t dress in a certain mannerism are not ‘cool’.

This can leads to anxiety, paranoia and depression amongst children, especially teenagers. Most children will therefore resort to hide from their friends or peers when they feel inadequate while others would starve themselves in order to attain the so called ‘ approved body figure’. This is a form of psychosocial imprisonment which is created by the social media kills the socialization process in early stages of life.

Mary was a 14 year old girl who died and was buried in December 2009. Her death was neither caused by a road accident nor a disease. She committed suicide. Her mother, Anne, narrates that her daughter’s death resulted from taking wrong information and advice from friends in facebook.

Mary had an outstanding record in school. She could be described as an “A” student. At the end of the academic term, she had a mean score of 87% and topped her class. As means of appreciation for the work well done, her father bought her a Toshiba Tecra M3 laptop computer. It was Mary’s first computer and she could hide the joy of owning a computer.

A few months later, she became very secluded. Mostly, she was connecting privately with her friends on Facebook. She no longer consulted her mother or her father with any issues as before. Any information she needed, she got online. Anne confesses that, “provided Mary’s grades were excellent in school, we did not care so much on what our daughter did privately in her room.”

Mary had attended a friend’s party. In the party access to alcohol was not an issue. Overwhelmed with curiosity, Mary had a glass of liquor. In no time she was high. She stripped and danced in her undergarments at the party. The thrilled audience cheered her up. Three days later, she happened to find her video posted on facebook blog. It had erotic and abusive comments.

Someone must have had taped her secretly and uploaded the video in facebook. Considering Mary’s age, such information was too much for her to handle. She committed suicide by taking an overdose. The idea of committing such an act was a friend’s advice from facebook.

Social networks are good sites for interacting or socialization. However, at an early age they cause more harm than good to children. This is because most of the content posted in the network at any given time are adult oriented and is not filtered. Moreover, parents lack the capability to control the content that is posted on the network at any given time Therefore, children should not be allowed as they lack the capacity to discriminate between what is good and bad.

• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2021, July 26). Facebook's Negative and Positive Effects on Children. https://ivypanda.com/essays/facebook-2/

"Facebook's Negative and Positive Effects on Children." IvyPanda , 26 July 2021, ivypanda.com/essays/facebook-2/.

IvyPanda . (2021) 'Facebook's Negative and Positive Effects on Children'. 26 July.

IvyPanda . 2021. "Facebook's Negative and Positive Effects on Children." July 26, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/facebook-2/.

1. IvyPanda . "Facebook's Negative and Positive Effects on Children." July 26, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/facebook-2/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Facebook's Negative and Positive Effects on Children." July 26, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/facebook-2/.

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Guest Essay

It’s Not You: Dating Apps Are Getting Worse

By Magdalene J. Taylor

Ms. Taylor is a writer covering sex and culture.

“The golden age of dating apps is over,” a friend told me at a bar on Super Bowl Sunday. As we waited for our drinks, she and another friend swiped through Bumble and Hinge, hunting for new faces and likes. Across the bar were two young men: phones out, apps open, clearly doing the exact same thing. Never did the duos meet.

What’s lamentable here isn’t only that dating apps have become the de facto medium through which single people meet. Since 2019, three in 10 U.S. adults have reported using them, with that figure rising to roughly six in 10 for Americans under 50 who have never been married. Not only are people not meeting partners in bars or any of the once normal in-person venues — they’re barely meeting them on the apps, either.

Maybe most of us just aren’t as hot as we used to be. Maybe it’s time our inflated egos got knocked down a notch. Maybe the market of people still willing to put themselves out there in an attempt to date has gotten smaller. Or maybe the apps have functionally, intentionally gotten worse, as have our romantic prospects. The more they fail to help us form relationships, the more we’re forced to keep swiping — and paying.

The internet, where so many of us spend so much of our time, has not been spared from the decline in quality that seems to plague so much of consumer life. This phenomenon was described by the writer Cory Doctorow in a November 2022 blog post and is sometimes called “platform decay”: Tech platforms like Amazon, Reddit and X have declined in quality as they’ve expanded. These sites initially hooked consumers by being almost too good to be true, attempting to become essential one-stop shops within their respective spaces while often charging nothing, thanks to low interest rates and free-flowing venture capital funding . Now that we’re all locked in and that capital has dried up, those initial hooks have been walked back — and there’s nowhere else to go.

This is precisely what is happening with dating apps now, too, with much more urgent consequences. What’s worsening isn’t just the technological experience of online dating but also our ability to form meaningful, lasting connections offline.

The collapse of dating apps’ usability can be blamed on the paid subscription model and the near-monopoly these apps have over the dating world. While dozens of sites exist, most 20-something daters use the big three: Tinder, Hinge and Bumble. (Older people often gravitate toward Match.com or eHarmony.) All three sites offer a “premium” version users must pay for — according to a study conducted by Morgan Stanley , around a quarter of people on dating apps use these services, averaging out at under $20 a month. The purpose, many believe, is to keep them as paid users for as long as possible. Even if we hate it, even if it’s a cycle of diminishing returns, there is no real alternative.

In the early heyday of Tinder, the only limits on whom you could potentially match with were location, gender and age preferences. You might not have gotten a like back from someone you perceived to be out of your league, but at least you had the chance to swipe right. Today, however, many apps have pooled the people you’d most like to match with into a separate category (such as Hinge’s “Standouts” section), often only accessible to those who pay for premium features. And even if you do decide to sign up for them, many people find the idea of someone paying to match with them to be off-putting anyway.

“If I don’t pay, I don’t date,” a friend in his 30s told me. He spends around $50 a month on premium dating app subscriptions and digital “roses” to grab the attention of potential matches. He’s gone on 65 dates over the last year, he said. None have stuck, so he keeps paying. “Back in the day, I never would have imagined paying for OKCupid,” he said.

Yet shares (Bumble’s stock price has fallen from about $75 to about $11 since its I.P.O.) and user growth have fallen , so the apps have more aggressively rolled out new premium models. In September 2023, Tinder released a $500 per month plan. But the economics of dating apps may not add up .

On Valentine’s Day this year, Match Group — which owns Tinder, Hinge, Match.com, OKCupid and many other dating apps — was sued in a proposed class action lawsuit asserting that the company gamifies its platforms “to transform users into gamblers locked in a search for psychological rewards that Match makes elusive on purpose.” This is in contrast to one of the group’s ad slogans that promotes Hinge as “designed to be deleted.”

People are reporting similar complaints across the apps — even when they aren’t taking the companies to court. Pew Research shows that over the last several years, the percentage of dating app users across demographics who feel dissatisfied with the apps has risen . Just under half of all users report feeling somewhat to very negative about online dating, with the highest rates coming from women and those who don’t pay for premium features. Notably, there is a gender divide: Women feel overwhelmed by messages, while men are underwhelmed by the lack thereof.

With seemingly increasing frequency, people are going to sites like TikTok , Reddit and X to complain about what they perceive to be a dwindling group of eligible people to meet on apps. Commonly, complaints are targeted toward these monthly premium fees, in contrast to the original free experience. Dating has always cost money, but there’s something uniquely galling about the way apps now function. Not only does it feel like the apps are the only way to meet someone, just getting in the door can also comes with a surcharge.

Perhaps dating apps once seemed too good to be true because they were. We never should have been exposed to what the apps originally provided: the sense that the dating pool is some unlimited, ever-increasing-in-quality well of people. Even if the apps are not systematically getting worse but rather you’ve just spent the last few years as a five thinking you should be paired with eights, the apps have nonetheless fundamentally skewed the dating world and our perception of it. We’ve distorted our understanding of how we’d organically pair up — and forgotten how to actually meet people in the process.

Our romantic lives are not products. They should not be subjected to monthly subscription fees, whether we’re the ones paying or we’re the ones people are paying for. Algorithmic torture may be happening everywhere, but the consequences of feeling like we are technologically restricted from finding the right partner are much heavier than, say, being duped into buying the wrong direct-to-consumer mattress. Dating apps treat people like commodities, and encourage us to treat others the same. We are not online shopping. We are looking for people we may potentially spend our lives with.

There is, however, some push toward a return to the real that could save us from this pattern. New in-person dating meet-up opportunities and the return of speed dating events suggests app fatigue is spreading. Maybe we’ll start meeting at bars again — rather than simply swiping through the apps while holding a drink.

Have you ditched dating apps for a new way to meet people, or are you still swiping left?

Opinion wants to hear your story.

Magdalene J. Taylor (@ magdajtaylor ) is a writer covering sex and culture. She writes the newsletter “ Many Such Cases .”

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips . And here’s our email: [email protected] .

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7 signs someone just isn't a good friend, no matter your history

• Friendships, especially long-term ones, usually experience highs and lows.
• But if you consistently don't feel good around a friend, it can be a sign that they're a bad one.
• A psychologist shared signs a friend isn't treating you right, even if you've known them forever.

Friendships — especially the close, long-term kind — can be prone to ups and downs. But sometimes, a rough patch (or several) can mean more than a temporary blip in the relationship, Miriam Kirmayer , a clinical psychologist, said.

Kirmayer said that your friendships are closely tied to your personal growth as well as your overall health and even professional success. Not feeling connected, understood, or even safe around a friend you see all the time can have detrimental effects on your life.

But being honest about how a friend makes you feel is easier said than done. "Generally, this is one of those questions that we don't take the time to ask ourselves," Kirmayer said, even though the answer is usually "very telling."

She shared some signs a friend is just not treating you right, even if you have a long history or empathize with them.

1. They take way more than they give back

Kirmayer said that one of the most important aspects of friendships is a "sense of balance or equality."

"We don't want to feel though we're scorekeeping or counting the minutes, but there should be this spirit that each person is able to contribute as much as they want to," she said. A friend might communicate by talking more , for example, but you should still feel like they ask you questions and are interested in your life.

A friend who feels like more of an energy vampire can make you feel drained and used because one-sided friendships tend to create resentment over time.

2. They use 'brutal honesty' to criticize you

There's a fine line between that and constructive critiques. It's one thing for a friend to worry about your attachment to an abusive ex; it's another for them to comment on how you talk, your mannerisms, or your hobbies.

"We feel the truest sense of belonging and connection when we feel seen, heard, and appreciated for who we actually are," Kirmayer said. If you constantly get told you're doing something wrong, "it can end up feeling like that friendship is conditional on our willingness or ability to mold ourselves into who they want us to be."

Whether they're taking jabs out of potential jealousy or sending you long therapy-speak texts about your faults, they're not helping you grow — they're cutting you down.

3. They don't respond well to feedback

Another really important part of a solid friendship is their ability to take feedback, Kirmayer said.

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"When you share that something makes you uncomfortable, something they've said, are they receptive to that?" she said. "Are they willing to take accountability or just your hear you out in a way that allows for constructive conversations?"

If you notice that your friend is reactive to feedback no matter how politely and diplomatically it's presented, it sends the signal that you have to put up with their behavior or risk explosive conflict, neither of which is healthy.

4. They rarely initiate communication

Tying back to reciprocity, Kirmayer said it's really crucial for close friends to feel equal in making time for and prioritizing each other. There's a general balance between reaching out to each other or initiating plans, even if one person is a little busier or going through a major life change.

"That consistency is important for keeping our friendships thriving," she said. Otherwise, you might worry if your friend is quiet quitting the relationship if you're always the one to text first.

5. They don't take 'no' for an answer

Friends respect your boundaries , Kirmayer said. If you say no to talking about a vulnerable topic, do they step back or keep prodding? If you don't want to go out on a weeknight, do they listen or start shaming you?

She said someone not respecting the word "no" is a huge red flag in all relationships — and, ironically, can push you away from a friend even more.

6. They gossip in a way that tears people down

Not all gossip is bad, Kirmayer said, nor does it always mean someone who talks about others will talk about you.

"Sometimes, our friends are gossiping as a need to secure support or to set out our perspectives and experiences," she said. It can be a way to work through a problem or grow closer via shared values.

That being said, there's a difference between healthy gossip and a friend frequently putting other friends down to make themselves feel better. In general, she said a solid friendship should present other ways of connecting besides what you don't like about other people.

But if you get a pit in your stomach about all the small things your friend rips other people apart over, it might be a sign that they'd speak just as badly about you, too.

7. They're not interested in your growth

If you've known each other for a while, you'll inevitably experience some changes in your careers, interests, relationships, health, or general outlooks on life.

That's why Kirmayer said it's a great sign if your friend asks questions and actively wants to keep learning about you , "and that you aren't only repeating the same conversations that you've had for years on end."

If a friend is only invested in a past version of you — and actively rejects the newer updates in your life — it can be a sign that you're outgrowing each other .

Watch: The surprising effects loneliness has on your brain and body

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