essay about negative effects of facebook

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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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Science News

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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What Leaked Internal Documents Reveal About The Damage Facebook Has Caused

Terry Gross

WSJ reporter Jeff Horwitz says Facebook executives often choose to boost engagement at the expense of tackling misinformation and mental health problems, which are rampant on their platforms.

TERRY GROSS, HOST:

This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. Internal Facebook documents were leaked by a whistleblower and acquired by my guest Jeff Horwitz, a technology reporter for The Wall Street Journal. He's the lead reporter for The Journal's new series of articles called "The Facebook Files." This series details how Facebook executives are aware of the ways the platform causes harm, but executives often lack the will or the ability to address them. The series reveals how a separate set of rules has been applied to VIP users like celebrities and politicians, allowing them to at least briefly escape restrictions and penalties that are applied to other users.

Facebook's own researchers are aware that Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, has negative effects on the self-image and mental health of many teenage girls. Internal documents also reveal that Facebook researchers have warned the company's executives that the platform is used in developing countries for human trafficking, drug-dealing and to promote ethnic violence.

The company's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, has made it a goal to promote the COVID-19 vaccine, but his researchers have pointed out that that effort is being undermined by commenters spreading misinformation. At least some of the leaked internal documents have been turned over by the whistleblower to the Securities and Exchange Commission and to Congress.

Jeff Horwitz, welcome to FRESH AIR. Congratulations on the series, which isn't over yet (laughter). You're still - there's more to come. So what are these internal documents that were leaked?

JEFF HORWITZ: So this is a collection of internal research notes, executive presentations, in some cases company audits of its own practices that provide a pretty clear sense of how Facebook sees itself and the company's awareness of its own problems. And I think that's something that sort of separates it from a lot of other really good reporting on the company, which is that instead of this being outside voices asking questions about whether or not Facebook is being detrimental to the world, this is Facebook asking those questions and answering them and sometimes finding that the answer is very much yes.

GROSS: And what you're talking about is researchers from Facebook who report to executives and tell them what's going on. And often what they've told them is that this platform is backfiring. It's causing harm for these and these reasons.

HORWITZ: Yeah, exactly. I think it's important to draw a distinction between sort of irate watercooler chat and people letting off steam about things that don't really involve them at the company versus this stuff, which is these are the people that Facebook has hired to inform it of reality and to help it address problems. And in many cases, they are finding some really unpleasant things and then running into obstacles in trying to fix them.

GROSS: Now, are the obstacles a lack of will? Or are the obstacles that Facebook is so big and there are so many users that it is hard to control, even if you want to?

HORWITZ: I think that the premise that the company is just too big to be - to regulate itself isn't correct. There are - yes, having nearly 3 billion users is quite a lot of users to have to be in charge of. But what our reporting seems to indicate is that the company's complexity has become a big problem, as well as just kind of a lack of will and lack of interest in some instances. So it's not that a platform couldn't be made to work for this many users in a sort of simpler and safer way. It's that you can't have all the bells and whistles, and you can't maximize engagement in the way that Facebook would like to and not have that come at a cost.

GROSS: Let's look at the first program you reported on, which is a VIP program called XCheck. This is a program that basically created separate rules for VIPs and for everybody else who uses Facebook. What VIPs have been exempt from certain rules? What kinds of people?

HORWITZ: Oh, a lot of them. So Facebook has talked in the past about providing some - a little bit of extra leeway for politicians and fact-checking and misinformation - right? - the idea being that, you know, in an election, candidates should have the right to say whatever they want to say even if those things aren't strictly true. And the thing we found is that the protections Facebook offers to powerful users go far, far beyond that.

So they include celebrities. They include journalists. I have no doubt that you should qualify. I most certainly should qualify. They include athletes and just sort of people who are famous for being famous, influencers. They include animal influencers. So you know, just, like, literally, the account Doug the Pug is actually covered by XCheck, which was the program.

So basically, the idea is - the commonality among all these people and entities and animals is that they are big enough and prominent enough, they could cause problems for the platform. The way that this program was designed very explicitly internally was to avoid, quote-unquote, "PR fires." And I think that's something that kind of sticks out in general in this reporting, is that the thing that makes Facebook scared more so than harm that it might be causing is the risk of public embarrassment.

GROSS: What kind of public embarrassment? What kind of PR fire?

HORWITZ: So this can be everything from making a mistake and tangling with, you know, the singer Rihanna's account because she posted a risque French magazine cover to, you know, making an error on something Donald Trump said to, you know, anything that basically would result in the company receiving widespread public criticism. And I think this is something that is kind of - exists throughout the series, is that Facebook really likes to stay in the background. They really would like to be kind of viewed as this neutral platform in which just kind of life plays out online. And as you know, what our reporting tends to show is that that is not the case. The company is actively making a lot of choices, is determining which interests benefit and at what expense. And I think XCheck is kind of a perfect example of that, which is that the whole idea is to never publicly tangle with anyone who is influential enough to do you harm.

GROSS: Can you give us an example of a post that caused harm or could potentially cause harm that was allowed to stay up for a long time or a brief time because this person was a VIP?

HORWITZ: Sure. And there are - so there are a lot of them. Facebook's own analysis of XCheck found that 16.4 billion views of violating content occurred solely because of the lag time in taking down stuff from VIPs that shouldn't have been up in the first place. But I think the example I would give for how this program can cause harm and does sort of run against Facebook's sort of basic ethos of fairness is the Brazilian soccer player Neymar, who, in 2019, was accused by a Brazilian woman of rape. And he, to defend himself, took to Instagram and took to Facebook in a live video. And he showed pictures of this - of his WhatsApp chats with this woman, his messages with this woman. And those messages included not just her name, but also nude photos of her that she had shared with him.

And this is just a complete no-go on Facebook. You are not allowed to broadcast people's naked pictures without their consent. It is called nonconsensual nude imagery at Facebook. It's called revenge porn everywhere else. And the appropriate response, per Facebook's own rules, is to immediately take down the post and delete the account that posted it. So that was kind of what would have happened. A Facebook employee did catch this, you know, pretty early on and tried to delete it. But the problem was Neymar's account was cross-checked. So it didn't come down. In fact, it stayed up for 36 hours, during which it racked up 56 million views. And this resulted in extensive harassment of the woman who had accused him of sexual assault. There were thousands and thousands of impersonators of her. And the video was reposted just all over the Internet. And basically, Facebook acknowledged internally that it had just completely failed to protect this woman. And this happened because of XCheck.

Now, I think another part of the program that is important is that it really does and is intentionally designed to allow executives, communications and sort of public affairs people to weigh in on punishments that would otherwise be doled out. And that's what happened in this instance is that Neymar, who is one of the top 20 accounts on Instagram - like, this is a guy who is probably more famous for social media than he is for soccer. Facebook just simply wasn't willing to lose him. And so this got bumped all the way up to senior leadership of the company. And they determined that rather removing him from the platform, even though that was the absolute standard rule for this situation, they were going to kind of let it slide. So they took down the post in the end. But they didn't punish his account in the way they normally would. And I think it's kind of representative of the dual-class - or even more than dual-class system that Facebook created, in some ways, reinforcing power structures that, you know, the company has said it was supposed to kind of overthrow.

GROSS: There was a 2019 internal review of the XCheck program. What did that review say?

HORWITZ: I think people inside Facebook did have, on a long-term basis, a sense that exempting users from enforcement and from punishment on the platform was just, like, clearly not the right thing to do. This is not what Facebook was set to do. This isn't democratic. It isn't fair. And in 2019, an internal review of the XCheck program found a few things. The first one is that it was completely widespread, that there were dozens and dozens of teams that were enrolling users in various protections and that, in fact, pretty much any employee had been allowed to enter people into the XCheck program in the first place.

The second thing is that it was just deeply mismanaged and unorganized. And no one really even knew how these lists were getting pulled together. They weren't being reviewed by lawyers. There was just sort of, kind of this ad hoc process where people would just put in names. And the final thing is that they found that this was just completely indefensible. This was a breach of trust with users. It was putting users in risk of harm. And it was clearly unfair. And as they noted, this was publicly indefensible and simply something that, you know, was completely at odds with the company's own sense of its legitimacy as an overseer of its own platform.

GROSS: What was Facebook executives' reactions after getting this report?

HORWITZ: Facebook - I mean, no one disputed that XCheck was a mess and that the program was unseemly and was in, you know, direct conflict with what the company had said publicly its rules are. That said, they really weren't willing to take on the mess of just simply doing away with it, particularly with the 2020 election coming up. I think this is something that - you know, over the period of time that the documents we reviewed cover, this company was paranoid about the possibility that it might be blamed for something in relation to the 2020 election. And so they desperately wanted to keep a low profile. And there was no way that they were going to rein the program in because this was kind of one of their main methods of trying to avoid criticism from high-profile people.

GROSS: Let's talk about anti-vax posts on Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg has made it a priority to promote vaccines and facts about vaccines. But at the same time, Facebook has been used widely to convey anti-vax falsehoods. And you found that internal documents reveal that the anti-vax comments were mostly coming not from the original post, but from commenters. Would you describe what happened with that?

HORWITZ: Sure. And I think a important place to start here is what you said about Mark Zuckerberg and his goals. This is something - fighting COVID was something that Facebook was, perhaps, uniquely inclined and positioned to do. They early on recognized the threat of the public health crisis back when a lot of other people were poo-pooing the possibility of the global pandemic. They sent all their moderators home, content moderators home, with pay. You know, they sort of really reframed and sort of sprinted to provide new tools, to provide information, to, you know, help out with public health efforts. They really were focused on this. And this was something that came from Mark Zuckerberg personally. I mean, this was kind of going to be Facebook's moment.

And I think the interesting thing about this is that there were, you know, sort of all these resources and good intentions put into it, and yet also this kind of failure by the company to recognize the risks that its own platform could pose. And it's not as if Facebook hadn't had plenty of warnings that the anti-vaccine movement was very active on its platform. If you remember the, you know, measles outbreaks back in 2019 at Disneyland and things like that, there was a very, very aggressive community of anti-vaccine activists that have been active on the platform, had gotten really sophisticated in terms of their methods and their approach. And so the company sort of focused on the positive and all the things it could do that would be helpful and really didn't pay much attention to the, I think, fairly obvious threat that a small band of people who were extremely dedicated could pose if they correctly harnessed Facebook's tools, which they did.

GROSS: Well, let's take a short break here. And then we'll talk some more. If you're just joining us, my guest is Jeff Horwitz, who is the lead reporter for The Wall Street Journal's new and ongoing series of articles called "The Facebook Files." We'll be right back after a short break. This is FRESH AIR.

(SOUNDBITE OF OF MONTREAL SONG, "GRONLANDIC EDIT")

GROSS: This is FRESH AIR. Let's get back to my interview with Jeff Horwitz, who is the lead reporter on a new and ongoing Wall Street Journal series called "The Facebook Files," based on a series of leaked documents from Facebook. These documents detail how Facebook executives are aware of the ways the platform causes harm, but executives often lack the will or the ability to address them. Is it harder to oversee or to apply rules to commenters than it is with people doing the original posts on Facebook?

HORWITZ: This was a bit of a blind spot for the company. They hadn't really ever put that much resources into trying to understand comments, which is kind of funny because Facebook really did engineer its platform to produce a ton of comments. And they - what they realized early in 2021 was that, you know, as the vaccine was rolling out - was that all of the authoritative sources of information about it - right? - the World Health Organization, UNICEF and so on - all of their posts were just getting swamped by anti-vaccine advocates who were, you know, producing, at extremely high volume, content in the form of comments that was kind of just hitchhiking around.

And I think the company understood this, to its credit, at that point as being a real threat because, you know, it's one thing to see something authoritative from UNICEF, and it's another thing to see that same thing and then a whole bunch of people saying don't believe it, right? And that's kind of the style of comment that was rising to the top of Facebook's own systems. So they realized that basically all of the things they were doing to try to promote authoritative information were in some ways being harnessed by the people who were trying to promote the exact opposite.

GROSS: Internal documents also show that Facebook knew - that it was really a small group responsible for most of the COVID misinformation on Facebook. So what was Facebook's response to this research that was delivered to executives?

HORWITZ: Yeah. So the initial response was just basically horror because they realized that, you know, there were just a very high proportion, not only of comments but also posts in general, that seemed to be - vaccine-hesitant was the company's phrase - so not necessarily straight misinformation - you know, false things like saying vaccines cause autism or make you sterile - but people who simply were exercising their right to speak on the platform as often as possible and in just extremely coordinated, almost cut-and-paste-style ways. And they were creating, basically, a false sense that there was a large public debate about the safety of vaccines, when there really isn't.

So the initial response was just, uh-oh, this is a huge problem. We've got to fix it. And then the second response was, OK, how do we do that because they didn't really have the tools in place. They hadn't planned for this. And so they had to kind of make do with a whole bunch of kind of ad hoc interventions and try to sort of start getting public discourse to be at least somewhat representative - right? - so that any time someone who was, you know, encouraging about vaccinations wouldn't just get dogpiled by a - you know, a very, very dedicated group of anti-vaccine advocates.

GROSS: Were these changes effective in stopping misinformation about the vaccine?

HORWITZ: I think it's kind of too soon to tell how well they did. Certainly in terms of preventing this stuff from getting traction in the first place, they failed - right? - means that there were, you know - the whole problem and the thing that kicked this - kicked Facebook's response into gear was that public debate on the platform about this thing was skewed. It was getting sort of manipulated by anti-vaccine advocates. And, I mean, the fact that this was happening in 2021, as the vaccine was getting rolled out, you know, from, you know, the initial sort of first responders and medical officials to the broader population, certainly seems like it could have had an impact.

And I think, you know, the company would note that it's not the only source of vaccine misinformation in the world by any means, right? There's plenty of stuff on cable TV that would have you believe bad things about the efficacy, safety and utility of the vaccine. But certainly, it's a remarkable thing for a company that really saw itself as being, you know, in the vanguard of solving a public health crisis that, you know, they're basically having to go back and fight with this highly active, somewhat ridiculous community that is just spamming their platform with bad information.

GROSS: Let's take another break here, and then we'll talk some more. If you're just joining us, my guest is Jeff Horwitz, a technology reporter for The Wall Street Journal who's the lead reporter for The Journal's new series of articles called "The Facebook Files," based on internal Facebook documents that were leaked to The Journal. We'll be back after we take a short break.

I'm Terry Gross, and this is FRESH AIR.

(SOUNDBITE OF CHARLIE HUNTER AND LEON PARKER'S "THE LAST TIME")

GROSS: This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. Let's get back to my interview with Jeff Horwitz, a technology reporter for The Wall Street Journal who's the lead reporter for the Journal's new series of articles called "The Facebook Files," which detail how Facebook executives are aware of the ways the platform causes harm but executives often lack the will or the ability to address them. The series is based on internal Facebook documents that were leaked by a whistleblower to Jeff Horwitz.

Let's talk about Instagram, which is owned by Facebook. Internal research from Facebook shows that Instagram could have a very damaging impact on teenage girls' self-image, their anxiety, depression. Why does Instagram sometimes have that effect on teenage girls? - 'cause you write that the algorithms on Instagram create a perfect storm for many teenage girls.

HORWITZ: Yeah. So body image issues and social comparison obviously didn't originate with the internet. That said, Facebook's own research found that Instagram had some uniquely harmful features in terms of encouraging young women in particular to compare themselves with others and to think about the flaws of their bodies in relation to others.

And, you know, this wasn't intentional. The company certainly hadn't meant to design something that did this. But, you know, there was no question in their own findings that, you know, compared to even other social media products, Instagram was worse in this respect - that it was very focused on the body as opposed to the face or performance and that, for users who arrived at the platform in not the best mental place, it could really have a big impact on them.

GROSS: What is the way in which algorithms create a perfect storm for teenagers? - 'cause you say that in the article.

HORWITZ: Right, right. So I think there's some core product mechanics here, which is that Instagram will always show you the most popular and successful posts from your friends and the people you follow and - whereas you're comparing that to your regular posts and your regular life. So there's kind of this kind of highlight reel ethos to it that tends to lead users to think that everyone else is living their best life while, you know, they're not.

And so that's part of it. Another part of it is just simply that people tend to be attracted to content that sort of really resonates with them. And if you have body image issues already, Instagram - and you are engaged with sort of looking at people who are prettier than you are on the platform, Instagram's going to keep on doing that. If you have concerns about diet and fitness and you think you might be overweight, Instagram is likely going to pick up on that and feed you a ton of dieting and fitness content.

And so they're kind of this - there's this feedback loop that the platform can create. And it turns out for people who are in a vulnerable place in the first place, it can be really damaging and, in some ways, lead to almost addictive-type behavior per Instagram's own analysis.

GROSS: So what you've just described is reported in documents that were written by Facebook researchers and then delivered to Facebook executives. So executives knew what you just told us, right?

HORWITZ: Absolutely. And Adam Mosseri, who's the head of Instagram, in fact, commissioned a lot of this research in the first place. So, you know, I think there's some credit that should go to the company for determining that - given the extensive external criticism of the company on these fronts, that perhaps it should at least get to the bottom of them. And it did. I mean, I think there's no question that what it found, you know, was convincing. As the company's own presentation - one of the presentations to executives notes, we make body image issues worse in 1 in 3 teen girls.

GROSS: But you write that this represents one of the clearest gaps revealed in these internal documents, gaps between Facebook's understanding of itself and its public position.

HORWITZ: Yeah. Look; I can understand why someone in corporate communications isn't eager to make the sentence, we make body image issues worse in 1 in 3 teen girls, public, much less some of the other things in these findings which included that young women who had thought about self-harm or suicide in the last month - that a not-tiny fraction of them traced those feelings directly back to Instagram's platform. So think potentially life-threatening effects.

And I can understand why the company wouldn't want to acknowledge that publicly, you know, or wouldn't want to talk about it much. I think what's interesting is the company did talk about these issues. They just didn't say that. What they said is that there were perhaps small effects, that the research was inconclusive, that, you know, there wasn't any, you know - that, you know, if there was an issue, it was bidirectional, so it was good for some users and bad for some users - basically really downplayed the clarity that they had internally about what was going on and the effect of their product.

GROSS: What was Facebook's reaction to your article about teenagers and Instagram?

HORWITZ: They defended the research and keeping the research private as necessary for, you know, honest internal discussion. And they, I think, tried to argue a bit with whether or not the conclusions of causality that seem to be very present within their own - how their own researchers discussed this stuff even with management - they sort of tried to undermine, you know, the certainty that it really sort of feels like pervades the presentations that the company's researchers gave to executives.

But, you know, I don't think they disagree with the issues. They sort of defended the things that they have said previously about there being relatively small effects. And, you know, I've noted that for many users and users who are in sort of a healthy emotional place, Instagram is a lot more beneficial than it is harmful, all of which is true. None of that is wrong. It's just that the question is, at what cost to vulnerable users?

GROSS: Well, let's take another short break here. If you're just joining us, my guest is Jeff Horwitz, who is the lead reporter for The Wall Street Journal's new series of articles called "The Facebook Files." We'll be right back after a break. This is FRESH AIR.

(SOUNDBITE OF SOLANGE SONG, "WEARY")

GROSS: This is FRESH AIR. Let's get back to my interview with Jeff Horwitz, a technology reporter for The Wall Street Journal. He's the lead reporter for The Journal's new series of articles called "The Facebook Files," which detail how Facebook executives are aware of the ways the platform causes harm, but executives often lack the will or the ability to address them. The series is based on internal Facebook documents that were leaked by a whistleblower to Jeff Horwitz.

One of the articles in the series is headlined "Facebook Tried To Make Its Platform A Healthier Place. It Got Angrier Instead." And this article is about a change that was made in 2018 that rewarded outrage. What was the change?

HORWITZ: Facebook promoted something in 2018 called meaningful social interaction. And the idea was that passively scrolling through content wasn't good for people - you know, it just turned them into zombies - and that what Facebook should be doing is encouraging people to sort of connect and engage with each other and with Facebook content more often. And there were two parts to this. One part was promoting content from people's friends and families, which was kind of a throwback to kind of an earlier era of Facebook where it was much more about that stuff than it was about kind of a constant stream of information and content.

The second part, though, was rewarding content that did really well on engagement, meaning things that got a lot of likes, but even more important than likes, things that got a lot of emoji responses, comments, re-shares, direct message shares and things like that - so basically things that made users kind of pound the keyboard a bit and, you know, share and engage as much as possible. And you know, nothing about that seems, you know, atrocious in sort of a general high-level view. But it turns out, as Facebook realized down the road, that the effect that had was privileging angry, incendiary conflict because there is nothing more engaging than a fight.

GROSS: And news publications, as a result, found that a lot of their traffic was decreasing dramatically. What was the connection?

HORWITZ: So there was some element of this where they were just kind of reducing news overall in feed at the - you know, in other words - and to boost the stuff from friends and family. But I think the type of content that succeeded changed. And one thing we found was that BuzzFeed's - the head of BuzzFeed, Jonah Peretti, who is - you know, no one could accuse this guy of being unsophisticated when it comes to social media - was actually figured out that something had changed materially when Facebook rolled out this stuff and that, essentially, a type of content that was succeeding was - on the platform, was, like, sensationalistic, incendiary. Gross medical stuff was doing well - you know, things that sort of got a response. And you know, his point to Facebook when he got in touch was that, look, like, you guys are forcing us to produce worse content.

And the same thing was true of political parties. They also picked up on what had changed, and they started adjusting accordingly. And so parties told Facebook that because of, literally, this algorithm change - like, some reweighting, some math - that they were shifting not just their communication strategy for the internet but, in some instances, their actual platform.

GROSS: Once this was reported to Facebook executives, what actions did the executives take?

HORWITZ: Facebook's attraction to meaningful social interaction as a metric wasn't just that they thought it would be good for people. It's also - they thought it would be good for Facebook. They really needed people to be engaging with content more because they'd been in decline in commenting and interaction in a way that was threatening to the future of a social network dependent on user-generated content. And so this had been really successful in terms of getting engagement back up and getting people to comment more. And the problem was that doing the things that researchers said would be necessary to sort of correct the amplified anger issue was going to come at the expense of some of the growth metrics that Facebook was pursuing. And that's always a hard sell inside that company.

GROSS: What was Facebook's response to this article?

HORWITZ: So Facebook noted that they had made some changes, which is true. I think the thing that we were very focused on is that people up to and including Mark Zuckerberg kind of resisted anything that was going to cause sacrifices in user growth numbers and in user engagement numbers for the purpose of improving the quality of discourse on the platform. So they told us on this one that basically any engagement-based ranking system or any ranking system is going to have problems - right? - that yes, they acknowledged that incendiary content did benefit from what they'd done, but, you know, that's not to say that there aren't disadvantages to other systems as well.

GROSS: So one of your articles in The Journal reports that in developing countries, Facebook was often used by drug cartels, human traffickers, used to promote violence against ethnic groups. And developing countries are actually very important to Facebook now. And why is that?

HORWITZ: People in poorer countries - they don't provide Facebook much money, but they do provide it with a lot of growth. The Facebook has basically stalled out in developed economies. I mean, there isn't really many - there isn't much in the way of new user growth to be achieved in the U.S., Canada, Europe and wealthier nations. So this is kind of where pretty much all of the company's growth has been coming in recent years. And you know, that makes them kind of - places like India are sort of the company's future.

And at the same time, though, Facebook has never really invested much in safety in those environments. And you know, they had, for example, a team of just a few people trying to focus on human trafficking across the globe. That includes sex trafficking, labor trafficking, organ trafficking. And they were clearly overwhelmed. And there were some, I think, serious issues of the company just simply not really caring all that much.

I think one instance we found was that the company had identified sort of wide-scale human trafficking occurring, in which people from the Philippines and Africa were kind of indenturing themselves into domestic labor in the Gulf states. And they were - once there, kind of lost all autonomy. They could literally be resold without their permission. And Facebook actually had - first of all, had allowed this for a long time. Like, up until 2019, it was actually OK for people to be sold on Facebook so long as the selling was happening through brick-and-mortar establishments, as long as, you know, there was - it was in a country where this was allowed. And then I think more broadly, Facebook had just kind of turned a blind eye to this whole practice. One thing, you know, that I think was - really stood out to me just in terms of demonstrating the company's lack of will on some of these things is that Facebook, while it had identified widespread human trafficking, hadn't done anything about it - and in some instances for years.

The thing that Facebook - moved Facebook in 2019 to take aggressive action on this was Apple. You know, maker of my iPhone told Facebook that it was going to take away - it was going to remove Instagram and Facebook from its App Store, basically make it so that people couldn't download the apps unless Facebook got its human trafficking problem under control. And boom, that was it, right? Actually, understanding human trafficking was happening on its platform wasn't enough to get Facebook's attention - what did was the threat that Apple might take an action that would severely damage its business. So Facebook, literally within days, was just pulling down content all over the place. And the crisis passed. And then, as we found, things went back to normal. And normal means that human trafficking is happening on a pretty widespread scale on the platform.

GROSS: Another obstacle that you report is Facebook doesn't have enough people monitoring posts who speak the dialect needed to identify dangerous or criminal uses of Facebook.

HORWITZ: Yeah. And this is something that I think - look; like, I think we're all familiar with Facebook's apologies right now, right? Like every couple of months or weeks or days, depending on how closely you're monitoring it, the company ends up saying that it's sorry that something happened. And particularly overseas, it seems like there's just this kind of succession of inadvertent oversights that come with large human consequences. And the thing we found is that these aren't accidents. These aren't due to the company, you know, just simply having too much to possibly do. These are issues of direct neglect. So for example, with Arabic, it's the third - world's third most commonly spoken language. It has many dialects that are mutually incomprehensible. Facebook literally can't - doesn't have anyone who can speak most of them or can understand most of them in terms of sort of the vernacular. And it also doesn't have a system to route content in those dialects to the right people.

So when something happens like the Israeli-Palestinian violence earlier this year, the company is just sort of woefully unprepared to deal with it. They can't process content. They don't have people on staff. And, I mean, one of the things that's kind of tragic that we could see inside the documents was that you had all of these people who work for Facebook with Middle Eastern backgrounds who were just desperately trying to, like, kick in ad hoc to try to, like, help steer the company in a better direction because it was just screwing up so much at a time that was, like, so crucial on its platform.

GROSS: Nick Clegg, who's the Facebook vice president of global affairs, recently published a blog post saying that The Wall Street Journal articles have contained deliberate mischaracterizations of what Facebook is trying to do and conferred egregiously false motives to Facebook's leadership and employees. What's your reaction to that?

HORWITZ: My reaction is that Facebook has the right to say whatever they would like to say in response to our reporting. I think the more useful reaction to that isn't mine. It's that there actually have been in recent days a large number of former Facebook employees who have directly taken issue with what Mr. Clegg and what the company has said on these subjects. And I mean, these are people who actually were doing the work. Like, there are names that are popping up on Twitter that are the names that were sort of protagonists, I suppose, in some of the stories I could see playing out inside of the company.

And what they've said very clearly is that - you know, one, that the things that we're raising are pretty much correct and, two, that there is, in fact, this history of kind of disregarding the work of the people Facebook's asked to do integrity work - integrity just being platform safety and content quality stuff. And so, you know, I think there's something really encouraging about some of these voices coming to the fore because these are people who sort of pioneered not just the ways to measure problems on the platform, but also ways to address them. And so the idea that they might be able to come out and talk more about the work they did is, I think, really interesting to me and, in some ways, would be very healthy for the company.

GROSS: My guest is Jeff Horwitz, who is the lead reporter for The Wall Street Journal's new and ongoing series called "The Facebook Files." This is FRESH AIR.

(SOUNDBITE OF YO LA TENGO'S "WEATHER SHY")

GROSS: This is FRESH AIR. Let's get back to my interview with Jeff Horwitz, a technology reporter for The Wall Street Journal, who's the lead reporter for the Journal's new series of articles called "The Facebook Files." The series details how Facebook executives are aware of the ways the platform causes harm. But the series also says executives have often lacked the will or the ability to address those problems. The series is based on internal Facebook documents that were leaked by a whistleblower to Jeff Horwitz. What are some of the suggestions current or former Facebook employees have made, that you're aware of, of how to improve some of the problems that you've reported on?

HORWITZ: Yeah, I think Facebook tends to treat social media as if it's - you know, Facebook is the only way in which it could possibly exist - right? - kind of a love-it-or-leave-it approach. And that, for their own - per their own employees, is absolutely not true. There are a number of things that can be changed, right? So in addition to just simply the question of resources, which would address a lot of problems, there are also ways in which the platform perhaps has grown too complex to be safe. So, for example, in developing countries, is it really a good idea for things to be able to go viral in a matter of minutes? Maybe that's not good if you're worried about information quality. So virality restrictions is one thing.

There's other work that I think seems like it would be really promising, such as trying to give more prominence to voices that seem to have respectful conversations. It's the - the concept is called earned voice. And rather than just sort of rewarding the biggest loudmouth, this would reward people who tend to be able to have conversations with people who aren't necessarily exactly like them that are nonetheless respectful and, you know, mutually satisfying. Now, that's not, of course, the way you get the most engagement, but it is something that could potentially provide a different style of conversation that would be, I think, recognized by most people outside the company as healthier.

GROSS: Recently, Facebook created what's been described as a Supreme Court for Facebook, an outside entity of experts who would help Facebook make complicated decisions about content. How has that been actually functioning?

HORWITZ: So this came up in the XCheck story that we did about the sort of special protections for VIPs. Facebook spent $130 million creating the Oversight Board and - with the stated purpose of providing transparency and accountability into its operations. And one of the powers it gave the Oversight Board was the ability to ask Facebook questions that Facebook would then have to answer, assuming that they were relevant. And in the case of XCheck, the board asked the right questions. In relation to Donald Trump's suspension from the platform, the board asked, very specifically, for data about the program and for the XCheck program and about protections for VIP users. And Facebook said it didn't exist. And this is obviously awkward, given the stuff we've seen, because, you know, we can actually see there were internal dashboards of metrics as well as just voluminous documentation of the program's problems, of the number of accounts, of how many bad views of content occurred as a result of the lag in review times. You know, this is a pretty well-documented program internally, and Facebook told its supposed overseers that it just simply didn't have the information and couldn't possibly gather it.

And the Oversight Board has, at this point, issued some pretty strong statements of discontent with that situation. But I think it does seem like a bit of a crisis in the sense that, you know, oversight does imply the ability to actually see what's going on inside the company. And I think the Oversight Board has, to its credit, recognized that that isn't something that Facebook is readily willing to provide. So what their role is, I think, going forward is going to be an interesting question, because they're, - you know, they're kind of being asked to play a self-regulatory role for Facebook. At the same time, they are fully independent, and they also seem to not have much trust in Facebook and whether Facebook's going to give them the truth about what Facebook is itself doing.

GROSS: Well, Jeff Horwitz, thank you for your reporting, and thank you for coming on our show.

HORWITZ: Thank you so much, Terry.

GROSS: Jeff Horwitz is the lead reporter on The Wall Street Journal series "The Facebook Files." If you'd like to catch up on FRESH AIR interviews you missed, like this week's interviews with B.J. Novak, who played Ryan in "The Office" and has a new TV series, or Max Chafkin, author of a new book about the controversial co-founder of PayPal, Peter Thiel, check out our podcast. You'll find lots of FRESH AIR interviews.

(SOUNDBITE OF JOHN COLTRANE'S "GIANT STEPS")

GROSS: FRESH AIR'S executive producer is Danny Miller. Our technical director and engineer is Audrey Bentham. Our interviews and reviews are produced and edited by Amy Salit, Phyllis Myers, Roberta Shorrock, Sam Briger, Lauren Krenzel, Heidi Saman, Ann Marie Baldonado, Thea Chaloner, Seth Kelley and Kayla Lattimore. Our digital media producer is Molly Seavy-Nesper. Therese Madden directed today's show. I'm Terry Gross.

Copyright © 2021 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

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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."

About the MIT Sloan School of Management

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Related Articles

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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• August 4, 2018

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• August 1, 2018

Negative effects of cursing

• July 28, 2018

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Home — Essay Samples — Sociology — Social Media — The Impact of Social Media: Causes and Effects

The Impact of Social Media: Causes and Effects

• Categories: Effects of Social Media Social Media

About this sample

Words: 1226 |

Published: Feb 7, 2024

Words: 1226 | Pages: 3 | 7 min read

Table of contents

Introduction, cause 1: increased connectivity and communication, cause 2: promotion of self-expression and individuality, cause 3: access to information and awareness, effect 1: impacts on mental health, effect 2: influence on societal norms and values, effect 3: privacy and security concerns.

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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. 

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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.

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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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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.

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The uses and abuses of Facebook: A review of Facebook addiction

Tracii ryan.

1 School of Health Sciences, RMIT University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

ANDREA CHESTER

2 School of Design and Social Context, RMIT University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

SOPHIA XENOS

Background and aims: Recent research suggests that use of social networking sites can be addictive for some individuals. Due to the link between motivations for media use and the development of addiction, this systematic review examines Facebook-related uses and gratifications research and Facebook addiction research. Method: Searches of three large academic databases revealed 24 studies examining the uses and gratifications of Facebook, and nine studies of Facebook addiction. Results: Comparison of uses and gratifications research reveals that the most popular mo- tives for Facebook use are relationship maintenance, passing time, entertainment, and companionship. These motivations may be related to Facebook addiction through use that is habitual, excessive, or motivated by a desire for mood alteration. Examination of Facebook addiction research indicates that Facebook use can become habitual or excessive, and some addicts use the site to escape from negative moods. However, examination of Facebook addic- tion measures highlights inconsistency in the field. Discussion: There is some evidence to support the argument that uses and gratifications of Facebook are linked with Facebook addiction. Furthermore, it appears as if the social skill model of addiction may explain Facebook addiction, but inconsistency in the measurement of this condition limits the ability to provide conclusive arguments. Conclusions: This paper recommends that further research be performed to establish the links between uses and gratifications and Facebook addiction. Furthermore, in order to enhance the construct validity of Facebook addiction, researchers should take a more systematic approach to assessment.

Introduction

In the last decade, the use of social networking sites (SNSs) has grown exponentially. For example, statistics provided by Facebook ( 2014 ) reveal that as of March 2014 there were 1.28 billion active users on the site per month, and at least 802 million of these users logged into Facebook every day. With statistics such as these, it is not surprising that Facebook is the most popular SNS in the world (see Figure 1 ). It is also one of the most popular websites on the Internet, second only to Google in global usage ( Alexa Internet, 2013 ). As a result of this popularity, social scientists have recently begun to examine aspects of its use (for a detailed review of this topic see Wilson, Gosling & Graham, 2012 ). However, limited research has examined the potential for Facebook use to become addictive ( Griffiths, Kuss & Demetrovics, 2014 ).

Active users of ten popular social networking sites

SNS addiction

SNS addiction has been defined as a failure to regulate usage, which leads to negative personal outcomes ( LaRose, Kim & Peng, 2010 ). While a growing number of researchers accept the possibility that the use of online applications can become addictive, the concept is contentious ( Griffiths, 2013 ) . In fact, despite over 15 years of Internet addiction research, the most recent version of The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5 th ed.; DSM-5; American Psychiatric Association, 2013 ) failed to include it as an addictive disorder.

While the exclusion of Internet addiction from the DSM-5 may create the perception that online addictions are not legitimate mental disorders, there is a large body of literature that suggests otherwise (see Kuss, Griffiths, Karila & Billieux, 2014 , for a more extensive review of this topic).

Note: Usage statistics in Figure 1 are current as at December 2013, and were sourced from the webpage “How Many People Use 340 of the Top Social Media, Apps & Services?” by Craig Smith, 1 December, 2013. Retrieved 9 December, 2013, from http://expandedramblings.com/index.php/resource-how-many-people-use-the-top-social-media .

In addition, a member of the DSM-5 working group suggested that inclusion of Internet addiction in future iterations of the DSM is possible, but is contingent upon the results of more rigorous research studies ( O’Brien, 2010 ). Unfortunately, at this point, there remains a sense of conceptual confusion associated with Internet addiction ( Meerkerk, van den Eijnden, Vermulst & Garretsen, 2009 ). For instance, a recent systematic review identified that there is no gold standard measure of this condition, nor is there any widely accepted theory ( Kuss et al., 2014 ).

One emerging theory of online addiction is Caplan’s ( 2010 ) social skill model of generalised problematic Internet use. This model states that individuals who prefer to communicate in an online environment are at greater risk of experiencing negative outcomes related to excessive online use. These individuals, who demonstrate deficient self-regulation of Internet use, tend to engage in online social communication as a means of escaping from negative mood states, such as loneliness or anxiety. Communicating online alleviates negative moods (known as mood alteration ), which then reinforces online use. Given the social focus of SNSs, this theory has the potential to explain SNS addiction. However, despite the popularity of SNS use, empirical research examining addiction to these online social platforms is currently lacking.

In 2011, Kuss and Griffiths performed a comprehensive literature review to examine the legitimacy of SNS addiction. In their paper, they focused on six areas associated with SNS addiction: usage patterns, motivations for SNS use, personalities of SNS users, negative consequences of SNS use, empirical evidence of SNS addiction, and co-morbidity. At that time, the authors were only able to locate five studies of SNS addiction. As a result, they were limited in their ability to ascertain the status of this potential disorder. While they were able to recognise that excessive use of SNSs can be linked to negative outcomes, they concluded that more extensive research was required to prove the existence of this disorder.

Three years later, Griffiths et al. ( 2014 ) performed another review of SNS addiction, this time locating 17 studies. This increase in the extant literature highlights the perceived salience of this topic of investigation. However, despite the larger body of research available for review, Griffiths et al. were not able to offer any more substantial conclusions. While they did find preliminary evidence for some symptoms of SNS addiction (e.g., preoccupation, withdrawal, and negative consequences), methodological issues associated with the majority of studies precluded the ability to form any conclusions regarding the legitimacy of SNS addiction. As a result, they proposed that the question of whether addiction to SNSs exists remains open for debate.

Griffiths et al. ( 2014 ) also made the valid point that describing SNS addiction is not a clear-cut process. In particular, they posit that becoming addicted to the social aspects of SNS use may represent “cyber-relationship addiction” ( Young, Pistner, O’Mara & Buchanan, 1999 ), while addiction to SNS games, such as the popular Facebook application Farmville, should fall under the classification of “gaming addiction” ( Griffiths, 2012 ). In the present paper, we argue that this notion should be taken one step further; just as the Farmville addict may differ from someone who compulsively posts social content on SNSs, so too may the motivations of the Facebook addict differ from the Twitter addict. As will become clear, this point is supported by research relating to the gratifications of SNS use.

Uses and gratifications of SNSs

Commonly, when researchers choose to examine the motivations associated with particular forms of media, they do so by employing a uses and gratifications approach. Uses and gratifications theory states that one of the keys to understanding the popularity of mass media lies in the identification of the factors underlying its use ( Katz, Blumler & Gurevitch, 1973 ). One of the first studies to examine the uses and gratifications of SNSs was performed by Raacke and Bonds-Raacke ( 2008 ). After surveying a sample of university students from the USA, these authors reported that the primary motivations for Facebook and MySpace use was to form and maintain social connections. Since that time, numerous studies have reinforced the importance of relationship maintenance as a key reason for Facebook use (e.g., Joinson, 2008 ; Sheldon 2008 , 2009 ; Valentine, 2012 ). Indeed, Kuss and Griffiths ( 2011 ) argue that relationship maintenance is the main motivator for all SNS use.

However, studies looking at the uses and gratifications of SNSs other than Facebook tend to indicate that Kuss and Griffiths’ ( 2011 ) argument may be somewhat misleading. For example, Dunne, Lawlor and Rowley ( 2010 ) report that one of the most important uses and gratifications for Bebo use among teenage girls was impression management. In addition, research relating to video and image sharing SNSs (such as YouTube and Pinterest) indicate that the use of these sites is primarily influenced by the need for self-expression and entertainment ( Gülnar, Balcé & Çakér, 2010 ; Mull & Lee, 2014 ). Given the varied features of different SNSs, these findings are hardly surprising. As Chen ( 2011 ) notes, “multiple media compete for users’ attention”, and “active users select the medium that meets their needs” (p. 759).

The results of these studies show that, while it is true that all SNSs serve a similar purpose - to facilitate social interaction through the efficient dissemination of information to a desired audience - the specific features of each individual site are often varied ( Boyd & Ellison, 2007 ). For this reason, it is unwise to assume that the results of a study that focuses on one particular SNS can be generalised to every SNS that is currently in existence ( Panek, Nardis & Konrath, 2013 ). Furthermore, important differences in SNS usage might be undetectable when data from different sites are combined ( Hargittai, 2008 ). Therefore, in the case of literature reviews such as those performed by Kuss and Griffiths ( 2011 ), it seems that the assumption of SNS homogeneity might be misguided. On the contrary, we argue that the need to separate out results from specific sites is crucial to understanding the development of SNS addiction.

Uses and gratifications and SNS addiction

Earlier, the point was made that the gratifications of a Facebook addict may differ from those of a Twitter addict. This example highlights the need for SNS addiction researchers to consider the motivations behind the use of addictive SNS platforms. According to Papacharissi and Mendelson ( 2011 ), “online media serve as functional alternatives to interpersonal and mediated communication, providing options or complements for aspects of an individual’s environment that are not as fulfilling” (p. 214). In certain circumstances, Internet users may lose control over use that was originally motivated by “active consideration of the gratifications of online behaviour” ( Song, LaRose, Eastin & Lin, 2004 , p. 390).

While the relationship between uses and gratifications and SNS addiction was previously recognised by Kuss and Griffiths ( 2011 ), limited research has been performed in this area. One of the first empirical studies to examine the relationship between SNS addiction and uses and gratifications was performed by Wan ( 2009 ). She studied use of the campus-based SNS Xiaonei.com amongst a sample of 335 Chinese college students. The results revealed that Xiaonei.com addiction was significantly associated with the motives of socialisation and relationship building. Similarly, another study based on a Greek sample of 1971 adolescents ( Floros & Siomos, 2013 ) found that the motivations of seeking friendship, relationship maintenance, and escapism, along with impulsive use of the Internet, predicted more frequent SNS participation.

While the two studies mentioned above support the notion that SNS use can be associated with a desire to socialise and form relationships online, findings from other studies indicate that this is not always the case. For example, Huang ( 2012 ) examined SNS use among 1549 adolescents, and found that entertainment gratifications were the strongest predictor of SNS addiction. In another study, Chen and Kim ( 2013 ) revealed that there was a positive relationship between SNS addiction and using SNSs for diversion and self-presentation. Of course, given that all of these studies (with the exclusion of Wan, 2009) measured aggregated SNS use, it is possible that these contrasting results reflect different types of SNSs used by each sample. If so, this would contribute to the argument that SNSs researchers should focus on specific sites rather than SNS use in general.

Rationale and scope of this review

As outlined above, the development of SNS addiction is likely to be linked to the gratifications associated with use of the particular site. The aim of this paper was to clarify this relationship by synthesising literature relating to the motivations for SNS use and SNS addiction. In doing so, the present paper builds upon a previous review of SNS literature by Kuss and Griffith ( 2011 ). Based on the issues outlined above, we argue that this review is necessary for two main reasons. First, although only three years has passed since Kuss and Griffiths’ original review was conducted, Griffiths et al. ( 2014 ) recently demonstrated that the extant literature has grown substantially in this time period. Second, previous reviews of SNS addiction have failed to examine results from particular social networking sites in isolation. As argued above, this approach may have obscured important results relating to the particular motivations of SNS use and SNS addiction. In contrast, the present review expands on the previous work by focusing only on research related to a single SNS: Facebook.

There were two main reasons for selecting Facebook over other SNSs. First, Facebook is considerably more popular than other SNSs (see Figure 1 ). The widespread acceptance of Facebook suggests that there maybe unique factors associated with this SNS that are working to gratify the needs of a large number of Internet users. Second, in their review of SNS addiction, Griffith et al. ( 2014 ) demonstrated that empirical studies based on Facebook outweigh studies focusing on any other SNS.

The synthesis of literature provided in this review should not only clarify the findings related to Facebook addiction, but will also help to address questions regarding the particular motivations of Facebook users, and whether these motivations are linked to the development of Facebook addiction. Furthermore, by performing a review of Facebook addiction literature at such an early stage, inconsistencies with the conceptualisation and assessment of this disorder can be identified. Through this process, recommendations for future research can be made, which should hopefully fortify the construct validity of this potential condition. If this can be achieved, Facebook addiction research would avoid the conceptual confusion that has consistently plagued Internet addiction research.

A literature search was performed using the academic databases ProQuest (including PsycInfo), ScienceDirect, and Web of Science. These databases were selected as they provide access to a large number of scientific peer-reviewed journal articles and theses from multiple disciplines. Two types of research studies were of interest in the current study: those relating to the uses and gratifications of Facebook, and those relating to Facebook addiction. Searches for uses and gratifications studies were performed using the terms ‘Facebook’, ‘social networking sites’, ‘social network sites’, ‘motivations’, and ‘uses and gratifications’. Searches for studies of Facebook addiction were performed using the terms ‘addiction’, ‘problematic’, ‘abuse’, ‘compulsive’, ‘excessive’, ‘social networking sites’, ‘social network sites’, and ‘Facebook’.

Uses and gratifications studies were included in the review if they measured the motivations of Facebook use in general; therefore, studies were excluded if they only focused on specific features of Facebook (i.e. a particular Facebook game). Furthermore, given that the present review was focused on the uses and gratifications of Facebook, rather than those of other SNSs, studies were excluded if they measured aggregated uses and gratifications for multiple SNSs (even if they included Facebook). According to LaRose, Mastro and Eastin ( 2001 ), “uses and gratifications researchers typically start with descriptions of common media uses, obtain ratings of the frequency or importance of those uses, and factor analyse the results to obtain gratification factors that are then correlated with media use” (p. 396). However, as this systematic review was interested in identifying all of the possible uses and gratifications of Facebook use, studies were included even if they had not reported evidence of factor analysis. In cases where factor analysis had been performed, the percentages of variance explained by each factor were recorded where available. This information was included in order to ascertain whether certain motivators of Facebook use are more important than others.

In regard to Facebook addiction literature, studies were excluded if they focused on addiction to SNSs in general (even if this included Facebook) and only provided combined results from these multiple sites in an aggregated format. As explained above, this criterion was necessary to ensure that results relating to other SNSs were excluded. For similar reasons, studies considering the role of Facebook use in relation to Internet addiction were also excluded.

Results and Discussion

Within this section, the results of the literature searches are presented, followed by a review of the common findings identified within the extant literature. Uses and gratifications studies are discussed first, including a section dedicated to a discussion of the variables associated with particular uses and gratifications. This is followed by a review of Facebook addiction studies, including an examination of the various instruments that were used to measure this construct.

Uses and gratifications

Twenty-four studies were identified that examined the uses and gratifications of Facebook and met the criteria identified above. For ease of comparison, the results of these studies are displayed in Table 1 . When the uses and gratifications factors are compared, some clear patterns emerge. In 14 out of the 16 studies where the percentage of variance for each factor was reported, the factors accounting for the majority of the variance relate to either relationship maintenance or passing time . In this context, relationship maintenance involves interacting with members of an individual’s existing offline social network ( Sheldon, 2008 ). Clearly, many Facebook users view the site as a useful tool to facilitate social interaction with existing friends and family. In this regard, Facebook differs from many older online social applications, such as discussion boards and newsgroups, which were primarily used for the formation of new relationships. Instead, Facebook appears to have an offline-to-online social focus ( Ellison, Steinfield & Lampe, 2007 ).

Systematic review of studies of the uses and gratifications of Facebook

a As these results originate from conference papers, they may be of a lower quality than the other reported studies.

b Individual variances for each factor were not provided.

Similar to the results presented here, Kuss and Griffiths ( 2011 ) also found that relationship maintenance was an important motivation for SNS use. As those authors did not look at specific SNSs independently from each other, it is unclear whether all SNSs have this focus, or whether these authors primarily discussed results from predominantly Facebook-related studies. The latter explanation is possible as, due to the popularity of the site, Facebook-related research tends to be more prominent than research relating to other SNSs. Clearly, researchers should endeavour to determine whether the uses and gratifications of other popular SNSs are similar or different to those associated with Facebook. In doing so, it would establish whether the popularity of Facebook is tied to unique factors.

In regard to the popular gratification of passing time, the findings appear to reflect the habitual use of Facebook to occupy time when bored, or to procrastinate from other activities ( Foregger, 2008 ; Sheldon, 2008 ). Using Facebook for this purpose may involve such activities as checking the News Feed for new updates or playing games. Papacharissi and Mendelson ( 2011 ) refer to such use as ritualised, and indicate that it reflects “the addictive nature of the genre” (p. 226). Based on this, it is possible that the gratification of passing time may be related to Facebook addiction, but further research is required.

If the remaining factors in Table 1 are compared, it is apparent that entertainment, companionship, and escape appear across multiple studies. Although these factors tend to account for less variance in their respective analyses than relationship maintenance and passing time, they are also worth discussing briefly, as they may be related to the development of Facebook addiction.

Fifteen studies in Table 1 include a factor relating to the use of Facebook for entertainment purposes. This factor encapsulates using Facebook to engage in socially passive activities, such as looking at user-generated content on the site, or playing games. In essence, the entertainment factor appears similar in nature to the more popular passing time factor. However, the latter appears to be motivated more by task avoidance, procrastination or filling time, while the former reflects planned usage for the purposes of pleasure seeking. In Sheldon’s ( 2008 ) study, the entertainment factor had a high mean score, which highlights the importance of this motivation for Facebook use in certain populations.

In regard to companionship, this factor was present in six out of 24 studies. Companionship taps into the use of Facebook to avoid loneliness and gratify interpersonal needs. Similarly, two other studies included motivations that related to decreasing loneliness ( Balakrishnan & Shamim, 2013 ; Teppers, Luyckx, Klimstra & Goossens, 2014 ). Given that there is a link between loneliness and the development of Internet addiction ( Caplan, 2010 ), it is possible that factors such as these may also be related to Facebook addiction. It is interesting to note that in Valentine’s (2011) study, top-loading items in the companionship factor related to the use of Facebook to escape from worries and problems. Such items may be suggestive of mood alteration, which, as mentioned earlier, is linked to addiction of online social applications ( Caplan, 2010 ; Lortie & Guitton, 2013 ). However, none of the uses and gratifications studies reviewed here explicitly referred to this dimension. Instead, they appear to use the term escape , which was included in four out of 24 studies.

Variables linked to uses and gratifications

Several of the 24 studies in Table 1 also identified variables that are commonly linked to the uses and gratifications of Facebook. A discussion of these variables was deemed to be germane to the current paper, as it sheds light on the types of people who may be at risk of Facebook addiction. This discussion taps into three main variables: gender, frequency of use, and duration of use.

Of the studies presented in Table 1 , five examined the association between gender and uses and gratifications of Facebook ( Hunt, Atkin & Krishnan, 2012 ; Joinson, 2008 ; Sheldon, 2009 ; Spiliotopoulos & Oakley, 2013 ; Teppers et al., 2014 ). In all of these studies, women were more likely than men to use Facebook for connecting with existing contacts. In contrast, Sheldon ( 2009 ) found that men were more likely than women to be motivated by making new friends or forming new romantic relationships on Facebook. Although Facebook has changed since Sheldon’s study was published, a recent study by Spiliotopoulos and Oakley ( 2013 ) also found that men prefer to use Facebook to engage in social network browsing.

The above results point to a fundamental difference between women and men in their uses and gratifications of Facebook; women prefer to use the site to maintain their existing social networks, while men prefer to use it to expand their social networks. Given that past research has linked Internet addiction with a tendency to prefer communicating with new online friends (e.g., Morahan-Martin & Schumacher, 2000 ; Young, 1998a ), it is possible that men may be more likely to fail to regulate their online communication and become addicted to Facebook. However, recent research has found that women are heavier users of Facebook than men ( Foregger, 2008 ). In light of these conflicting results, it is clear that researchers should examine the difference that gender plays in the development of Facebook addiction. In fact, it may be the case that there are multiple pathways to addiction, and these are mediated by different communicative motivations.

In Joinson’s ( 2008 ) study, frequency of Facebook use - that is, returning to Facebook multiple times per day - was found to be associated with what he called surveillance gratifications . This involves looking at user-generated content, such as photographs and status updates. Similarly, Hart ( 2011 ) reported that the entertainment gratification was a significant variable in a model predicting the frequency of Facebook use in both undergraduate and high school students. These results imply that passively engaging with social or entertainment-related content on Facebook can motivate users to return to the site frequently. This kind of use may be associated with checking for real-time updates on the News Feed, as content will generally be updated regularly. Such behaviour may be tapping into what is anecdotally referred to as fear of missing out or FoMO ( Przybylski, Murayama, DeHaan & Gladwell, 2013 ); however, this warrants further investigation.

Interestingly, Papacharassi and Mendelson ( 2011 ) found that people who used Facebook more frequently developed a greater affinity with the site, especially when they used it to escape from negative emotions. As already discussed, the use of online applications for mood alteration is associated with deficient self-regulation and negative outcomes ( Caplan, 2010 ). Therefore, it is possible that this aspect of the social skill model of generalised problematic Internet use is relevant to the use of Facebook. While more in-depth research is required to support this theory, it is plausible that lonely or socially anxious individuals may feel more connected with others when checking the News Feed for recent updates, or when receiving messages or comments from friends. If so, this may lead such users to check the site frequently, in order to attain the negative reinforcement of mood alteration.

Joinson ( 2008 ) also found that the duration of time spent on Facebook per day was predicted by what he referred to as content gratifications, which involve engaging in non-so- cially oriented Facebook activities (i.e., playing games, searching applications, and completing quizzes). Similarly, Foregger ( 2008 ) found that using Facebook to pass time led to more time spent on Facebook per day. Taken together, these findings suggest that individuals who spend a lot of time on Facebook per day may do so for different reasons than those who check Facebook frequently. For example, rather than passively engaging with posted social content in the way that frequent users do, heavy users may be gratified by non-social activities such as game playing.

In contrast to the assumption above, Hart ( 2011 ) discovered that using Facebook for entertainment and relationship maintenance significantly contributed to a model predicting the amount of time spent on Facebook per day. This opposing result can potentially be explained by changes made to Facebook after 2008. In particular, Facebook added the real-time synchronous instant messaging application ‘Chat’ in April of that year ( Wiseman, 2008 ). This feature may have encouraged some Facebook users to spend more time on the site for social purposes, such as chatting with their friends and family. Furthermore, Alhabash, Park, Kononova, Chiang and Wise ( 2012 ) reported that Facebook intensity was predicted by the desire to share personal information via status updates. These results suggest that socially active Facebook applications, such as Chat and status updates may be associated with heavy Facebook use. One potential explanation for this trend is that the use of these applications increases the chance of receiving comments and messages from other users. For some individuals, such as those who are lonely, receiving this type of feedback could provide relief from feelings of social isolation and reinforce the use of these applications. In support of this, Yang and Brown ( 2013 ) reported that the use of status updates was associated with higher levels of loneliness, while Teppers et al. ( 2014 ) found that lonely adolescents were more likely to use the socially interactive applications of Facebook than non-lonely adolescents.

Facebook addiction

Nine studies measuring Facebook addiction were located through the literature searches (see Table 2 ). The results of these studies suggest that Facebook addiction is associated with being male ( Çam & İsbulan, 2012 ), being a heavy Facebook user ( Hong, Huang, Lin & Chiu, 2014 ; Koc & Gulyagci, 2013 ), and being in a higher year level at university ( Çam & İsbulan, 2012 ). Facebook addiction was also linked to certain psychological variables, such as relationship dissatisfaction ( Elphinston & Noller, 2011 ), depression ( Hong et al., 2014 ; Koc & Gulyagci, 2013 ), anxiety ( Koc & Gulyagci, 2013 ), subjective happiness, and subjective vitality ( Uysal, Satici & Akin, 2014 ). In terms of the symptoms of Facebook addiction, support was found for the existence of preference for online social interaction, mood alteration, deficient self-regulation, negative outcomes ( Lee, Cheung & Thadani, 2012 ), salience, loss of control, withdrawal, relapse ( Balakrishinan & Shamim, 2013 ), and tolerance ( Zaremohzzabieh, Samah, Omar, Bolong & Kamarudin, 2014 ).

Systematic review of Facebook addiction studies

a As these results originate from a conference paper, they may be of a lower quality than the other reported studies.

Only one study directly examined whether there was an association between the uses and gratifications of Facebook and Facebook addiction. Sofiah, Omar, Bolong and Osman ( 2011 ) reported that Facebook addicts were more inclined to use Facebook for social interaction, passing time, entertainment, companionship, and communication. These findings support the assumptions made earlier following the systematic review of uses and gratifications studies. Despite the lack of direct examination of the motivations of Facebook use by addictions researchers, the results of the studies included in Table 2 tap into three distinct themes that were also apparent in the uses and gratifications research: habitual Facebook use, excessive Facebook use, and mood alteration. The following section will discuss these results in more detail. Following this, a discussion relating to the measurement of Facebook addiction in these studies will be provided.

Habitual Facebook use

In the study performed by Elphinston and Noller ( 2011 ), the three items on the Facebook Intrusion Scale with the highest individual mean scores were ‘I often use Facebook for no particular reason’, ‘I feel connected to others when I use Facebook’, and ‘I lose track of how much I am using Facebook’. Likewise, Sofiah et al. ( 2011 ) reported that the items with the highest mean scores on their measure of Facebook addiction were ‘Facebook has become part of my daily routine’, ‘I find that I stay on Facebook longer than intended’, and ‘I feel out of touch when I haven’t logged onto Facebook for a while’. These results highlight the propensity for Facebook use to lead to deficient self-regulation through habitual and unmonitored use.

The results of the study by Sofiah et al. ( 2011 ) also revealed that the gratification of using Facebook to pass time accounted for 17.3% of the variance in scores from their measure of Facebook addiction (described in Table 3 ). Further, using Facebook for the combined motives of passing time, entertainment, and communication accounted for 23.9% of the variance. Therefore, habitual use of Facebook for passing time may put users at risk of Facebook addiction through the development of deficient self-regulation. As discussed above, passing time on Facebook appears to be predominantly associated with task avoidance and procrastination ( Foregger, 2008 ; Sheldon, 2008 ). As these types of gratifications are not socially focused, it seems that Caplan’s ( 2010 ) social skill model may not be adequate to explain these particular results. Further research is warranted to explore this supposition.

Facebook Addiction Assessment Instruments

a These measures have been subjected to factor analysis.

b This paper was not included in Table 2 as it is an instrument development study rather than a Facebook addiction study.

Excessive Facebook use

Two of the studies listed in Table 2 reported that higher levels of Facebook use were linked to Facebook addiction ( Hong et al., 2014 ; Koc & Gulyagci, 2013 ). These results are not surprising, given that online addictions researchers have previously pointed to a link between heavy Internet usage and addiction (e.g., Tonioni et al., 2012 ). In fact, many scholars have used the term “excessive Internet use” interchangeably with the term Internet addiction. This trend is most likely due to the popular belief that spending a large amount of time performing a particular behaviour, such as exercise or eating chocolate, is an indicator of the presence of addiction ( Leon & Rotunda, 2000 ); however, there are mixed views on this argument. Both Caplan ( 2005 ) and Griffiths ( 1999 ) have pointed out that excessive time spent online does not automatically qualify an individual as addicted. There are many non-problematic Internet behaviours that would involve extended periods of time online, such as study or work-related research. However, while not all people who spend large amounts of time on Facebook per day are necessarily addicted, due to the role that deficient self-regulation is thought to play, it makes sense that Facebook addicts would generally be heavy users.

Research relating to the uses and gratifications of Facebook has indicated that time spent on Facebook per day is related to content gratifications ( Joinson, 2008 ), passing time ( Foregger, 2008 ), and relationship maintenance ( Hart, 2011 ). Frequency of Facebook use has also found to be associated with using Facebook for entertainment ( Hart, 2011 ) and surveillance gratifications ( Joinson, 2008 ). This suggests that there are several different gratifications associated with both heavy and frequent Facebook use, and again, not all are socially focused.

Mood alteration

Lee et al. ( 2012 ) assessed whether Caplan’s ( 2010 ) social skill model applied to Facebook addiction. The results revealed that having a preference for online social interaction, and using Facebook for mood alteration, explained 35% of the variance in scores measuring deficient self-regulation of Facebook use. In turn, deficient self-regulation of Facebook use had a direct impact on the experience of negative life outcomes. While not measuring mood alteration directly, two other studies ( Hong et al., 2014 ; Koc & Gulyagci, 2013 ) provided evidence to support a relationship between low psychosocial health (depression and anxiety) and Facebook addiction. These findings may indicate that depressed and anxious people turn to Facebook to find relief and escape.

In regard to the link between these findings and uses and gratifications, evidence suggests that lonely people use Facebook to gain a sense of companionship ( Foregger, 2008 ; Sheldon, 2008 ), and to help them escape from their worries and problems ( Valentine, 2012 ). Papacharassi and Mendelson ( 2011 ) found that people who use Facebook to escape from unwanted moods use the site more frequently. They also tend to enjoy Facebook use more than non-lonely users. In 2007, Caplan reported that loneliness is associated with Internet addiction, and that this relationship is mediated by social anxiety. Therefore, it seems that the findings reported here partly support Caplan’s ( 2010 ) social skill model.

Measuring Facebook addiction

Due to the fact that Facebook addiction is an emerging field, different researchers have taken varying approaches to the measurement of this potential disorder. This is illustrated in Table 3 , which provides a summary of existing Facebook addiction instruments. As can be seen, scholars have tended to either create their own measures based on research from related addiction fields, or they have borrowed and modified existing measures of Internet addiction. A similar process also occurred when researchers began to create measures of Internet addiction ( Lortie & Guitton, 2013 ). Most Internet addiction instruments seem to be based on other addictive disorders, such as pathological gambling or substance-related addiction. This approach has led to confusion surrounding the appropriate criteria with which to measure Internet addiction, and has contributed to the underlying sense of conceptual chaos in the field ( Meerkerk et al., 2009 ). As a result, applying a similar approach to the measurement of Facebook addiction should be avoided.

In support of the above argument, examination of the Facebook addiction instruments that have been subjected to factor analysis (see Table 3 ) highlights inconsistency in measurement. For instance, both The Facebook Intrusion

Questionnaire ( FIQ; Elphinston & Noller, 2011 ) and the Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale ( BFAS; Andreassen, Torsheim, Brunborg & Pallesen, 2012 ) include factors tapping into salience, withdrawal and relapse; however, that is where the similarities between these measures end. Likewise, there are more differences than similarities between the Generalised Problematic Internet Use Scale ( GPIUS2; Caplan, 2010 ) and the BFAS, although both include a mood-related factor (mood alteration/mood modification) and a negative outcomes factor (negative outcomes/conflicts). These examples underscore a lack of construct validity surrounding Facebook addiction. Moreover, they highlight the inconsistencies underlying behavioural addictions research in general.

As Facebook is an application of the Internet, it could be argued that the manifestation of Facebook addiction would have more in common with Internet addiction than it does with other forms of addiction, such as pathological gambling. In support of this claim, Caplan ( 2010 ) argues that preference for online communication is the key factor associated with the development of problematic use of online forms of communication. Given that Lee et al. ( 2012 ) found this factor was also relevant to Facebook addiction, it seems that preference for online social interaction is a factor worth including in ameasure of Facebook addiction. The modified version of the GPIUS2 therefore possibly presents the best option for measuring Facebook addiction out of all of the measures in Table 3 ; however, it also has limitations. For example, it does not provide a cut-off point for recognising problematic use ( Spraggins, 2009 ), nor does it measure how long the use has been problematic ( Griffiths, 2000 ).

Another point to consider is that, in light of the unprecedented popularity of Facebook with Internet users across the world, it is possible that there may be unique aspects associated with the development of addiction to this site. For example, past research has linked Internet addiction to the desire to communication with new online acquaintances, but uses and gratifications research has shown that the main motivation of Facebook use relates to maintaining existing online relationships. In this way, Facebook may be different to other forms of social media; however, this has yet to be determined.

Furthermore, if it is true that maintaining existing online relationships leads to Facebook addiction, it is important to be clear about what ‘existing relationships’ means. Does it refer purely to current and strong existing offline relationships, or does it take into account relationships from the past that have been rekindled through Facebook? One way of answering such questions would be to conduct in-depth exploratory research with Facebook addicted individuals. As opposed to borrowing and amending measures from conceptually related disorders, proceeding with research in an exploratory direction could enhance the construct validity of Facebook addiction and its associated measures.

Conclusions

The aim of this paper was to extend the work of Kuss and Griffiths ( 2011 ) by synthesising literature relating to the uses and abuses of Facebook. By examining this research, several important and previously unreported points have been highlighted. First, researchers have recognised that the main uses and gratifications of Facebook are relationship maintenance, passing time, entertainment, and companionship. Some of these gratifications appear to be more common among particular groups, such as women and younger users. Although there is limited empirical research examining the links between uses and gratifications and Facebook abuse, it is possible that these motives may cause Facebook use that is habitual, excessive, or motivated by a desire to escape from negative moods.

Second, in regard to Facebook addiction, the findings discussed here paint the following picture: individuals with low psychosocial wellbeing, such as loneliness, anxiety or depression, are motivated to use Facebook to find social support or to pass time. The lift in mood that this provides (also known as mood alteration) leads to deficient self-regulation, possibly due to negative reinforcement. In severe cases, this can eventually lead to negative life consequences.

For the most part, this description appears to support Caplan’s ( 2010 ) social skill model of generalised problematic Internet use. On the other hand, it is also possible that there are multiple pathways to Facebook addiction; for instance, those triggered by non-socially motivated use or fear of missing out. Unfortunately, at this point in time, inconsistency in the measurement of Facebook addiction makes it difficult to propose compelling arguments regarding this condition. It seems, therefore, that researchers should focus on strengthening the assessment of Facebook addiction before examining alternative pathways to the development of this condition. Further research should also aim to explore Facebook use within the general population, rather than focusing primarily on university students.

Furthermore, the offline-to-online social interactions that appear to motivate most Facebook users may be different to other forms of social media. Therefore, when measuring Facebook addiction, it is important to use an instrument that takes into account the potentially unique symptoms of the condition. At present, the existing measures described within this paper fail to achieve this, as they are primarily based on research from other areas of addiction. While the inclusion of the core symptoms of addiction is important, researchers in this area should also aim to conduct detailed exploratory studies of Facebook addiction, using either qualitative or mixed methods. This process should facilitate the development of more focused instruments of Facebook addiction, which, in turn, should provide more concrete evidence to support the legitimacy of this addictive disorder.

Limitations

Prior to concluding this paper, it is worth mentioning the possibility that performing a meta-analysis rather than a systematic review may have led to greater understanding of the uses and gratifications of Facebook and Facebook addiction. It should be mentioned, however, that a lack of consistency in regard to Facebook addiction measurement made a metaanalytic approach difficult.

Broader implications

It appears as if there is some evidence to support the notion that the uses and abuses of Facebook are linked. At this point in time, however, research addressing this salient area is still in its infancy. While some tentative steps forward have been made with this review, it is clear that the construct validity of Facebook addiction and its associated measures must be strengthened before research continues.

In addition, there is a strong need for a systematic method of item development when measuring emerging forms of addictive behaviours. As demonstrated in the present review, researchers currently tend to take a haphazard approach, which could end up resulting in conceptual confusion. Until a more systematic process is established, behavioural addictions researchers should think carefully when borrowing criteria or items from other addictive disorders. Ideally, researchers should endeavour to perform exploratory research in the first instance. This would offer more clarity in regards to which symptoms are relevant to the addictive disorder in question. Furthermore, an exploratory approach would provide opportunities for the identification of unique symptoms, which should improve construct validity.

Funding sources

No financial support was received for this study.

Authors’ contribution

TR and AC are responsible for the study concept and design. JR and SX performed study supervision. No data is included in this review.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Ethical standards

This review did not involve human and/or animal experimentation.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the reviewers for their insightful contributions to this paper.

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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.

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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.

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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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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Five Takeaways From Nikole Hannah-Jones’s Essay on the ‘Colorblindness’ Trap

How a 50-year campaign has undermined the progress of the civil rights movement.

By Nikole Hannah-Jones

Nikole Hannah-Jones is a staff writer at the magazine and the creator of The 1619 Project. She also teaches race and journalism at Howard University.

Last June, the Supreme Court ruled that affirmative action in college admissions was not constitutional. After the decision, much of the discussion was about its impact on the complexions of college campuses. But in an essay in The Times Magazine, I argue that we were missing the much bigger and more frightening story: that the death of affirmative action marks the culmination of a radical 50-year strategy to subvert the goal of colorblindness put forth by civil rights activists, by transforming it into a means of undermining racial justice efforts in a way that will threaten our multiracial democracy.

What do I mean by this? Here are the basic points of my essay:

The affirmative-action ruling could bring about sweeping changes across American society.

Conservatives are interpreting the court’s ruling broadly, and since last summer, they have used it to attack racial-justice programs outside the field of higher education. Since the decision, conservative groups have filed and threatened lawsuits against a range of programs that consider race, from diversity fellowships at law firms to maternal-health programs. One such group has even challenged the medical school of Howard University, one of the nation’s pre-eminent historically Black universities. Founded to educate people who had been enslaved, Howard’s mission has been to serve Black Americans who had for generations been systematically excluded from American higher education. These challenges to racial-justice programs will have a lasting impact on the nation’s ability to address the vast disparities that Black people experience.

Conservatives have co-opted the civil rights language of ‘colorblindness.’

In my essay, I demonstrate that these challenges to racial-justice programs often deploy the logic of “colorblindness,” the idea that the Constitution prohibits the use of race to distinguish citizens and that the goal of a diverse, democratic nation should be a society in which race does not determine outcomes for anyone. Civil rights leaders used the idea of colorblindness to challenge racial apartheid laws and policies, but over the last 50 years, conservatives have successfully co-opted both the rhetoric and the legal legacy of the civil rights era not to advance racial progress, but to stall it. And, I’d argue, reverse it.

Though the civil rights movement is celebrated and commemorated as a proud period in American history, it faced an immediate backlash. The progressive activists who advanced civil rights for Black Americans argued that in a society that used race against Black Americans for most of our history, colorblindness is a goal. They believed that achieving colorblindness requires race-conscious policies, such as affirmative action, that worked specifically to help Black people overcome their disadvantages in order to get to a point where race no longer hindered them. Conservatives, however, invoke the idea of colorblindness to make the case that race-conscious programs, even to help those whose race had been used against them for generations, are antithetical to the Constitution. In the affirmative-action decision, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., writing for the majority, embraced this idea of colorblindness, saying: “Eliminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it.”

The Supreme Court’s decision undermines attempts to eliminate racial inequality that descendants of slavery suffer.

But mandating colorblindness in this way erases the fact that Black Americans still suffer inequality in every measurable aspect of American life — from poverty to access to quality neighborhoods and schools to health outcomes to wealth — and that this inequality stems from centuries of oppressive race-specific laws and policies. This way of thinking about colorblindness has reached its legal apotheosis on the Roberts court, where through rulings on schools and voting the Supreme Court has helped constitutionalize a colorblindness that leaves racial disparities intact while striking down efforts to ameliorate them.

These past decisions have culminated in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which can be seen as the Supreme Court clearing the way to eliminate the last legal tools to try to level the playing field for people who descend from slavery.

Affirmative action should not simply be a tool for diversity but should alleviate the particular conditions of descendants of slavery.

Part of the issue, I argue, is that the purpose of affirmative action got muddled in the 1970s. It was originally designed to reduce the suffering and improve the material conditions of people whose ancestors had been enslaved in this country. But the Supreme Court’s decision in the 1978 Bakke case changed the legally permissible goals of affirmative action, turning it into a generalized diversity program. That has opened the door for conservatives to attack the program for focusing on superficial traits like skin color, rather than addressing affirmative action's original purpose, which was to provide redress for the disadvantages descendants of slavery experienced after generations of oppression and subordination.

Working toward racial justice is not just the moral thing to do, but it is also crucial to our democracy.

When this country finally abolished slavery, it was left with a fundamental question: How does a white-majority nation, which wielded race-conscious policies and laws to enslave and oppress Black people, create a society in which race no longer matters? After the short-lived period of Reconstruction, lawmakers intent on helping those who had been enslaved become full citizens passed a slate of race-conscious laws. Even then, right at the end of slavery, the idea that this nation owed something special to those who had suffered under the singular institution of slavery faced strident opposition, and efforts at redress were killed just 12 years later with Reconstruction’s end. Instead, during the nearly 100-year period known as Jim Crow, descendants of slavery were violently subjected to a dragnet of racist laws that kept them from most opportunities and also prevented America from becoming a true democracy. During the civil rights era, when Black Americans were finally assured full legal rights of citizenship, this question once again presented itself: In order to address the disadvantage Black Americans faced, do we ignore race to eliminate its power, or do we consciously use race to undo its harms? Affirmative action and other racial-justice programs were born of that era, but now, once again, we are in a period of retrenchment and backlash that threatens the stability of our nation. My essay argues that if we are to preserve our multiracial democracy, we must find a way to address our original sin.

Nikole Hannah-Jones is a domestic correspondent for The New York Times Magazine focusing on racial injustice. Her extensive reporting in both print and radio has earned a Pulitzer Prize, National Magazine Award, Peabody and a Polk Award. More about Nikole Hannah-Jones

Critics say Beyoncé's new album 'Cowboy Carter' is a virtuosic riff on the country genre — but it could have used some editing

• Beyoncé released her eighth studio album "Cowboy Carter" on Friday.
• She described the country-inspired project as a "continuation of 'Renaissance'" and "an experience."
• Critics are raving about the album's ambitious scope, especially on "Ya Ya" and "II Most Wanted."

Beyoncé has once again changed the game with a digital drop, unveiling her eighth studio album, "Cowboy Carter," on Friday to overwhelming praise.

The second installment in a three-act series that launched with " Renaissance " in 2022 draws heavily from Southern iconography, folk, blues, soul, and Americana influences. The tracklist boasts features from Nashville legends like Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, and Linda Martell .

"I hope that you can hear my heart and soul, and all the love and passion that I poured into every detail and every sound," Beyoncé wrote on Instagram . "I hope this music is an experience, creating another journey where you can close your eyes, start from the beginning and never stop."

Reviews for "Cowboy Carter" are rolling in. Here's what critics are saying so far.

The sonic palette of "Cowboy Carter" is more diverse than its title may suggest.

"Country, gospel, soul, blues, R&B, pop, psychedelic rock, and more all find themselves as key members of Beyoncé's country. Her country is more dimensional and multifaceted than Nashville could ever dream of, because Black folks in the country had to imagine and conjure worlds that did not even exist during enslavement and sharecropping in the heavily segregated Jim Crow South." — Taylor Crumpton, The Daily Beast

"Across 27 tracks, almost all with compellingly muscular melodies, she whips and neigh-neighs through every conceivable form of classic and modern country, roping in elements of opera, rock and hip-hop at her commanding, virtuosic whim." — Helen Brown, The Independent

"It's a deep stylistic smorgasbord that gets scattershot in the final third of the album's 27 tracks (several of them interludes) with trap beats and fiddles vying for the front row." — Melissa Ruggieri, USA Today

"With this endlessly entertaining project, she gets to be a warrior of female and Black pride and a sweetheart of the radio. Because being Beyoncé means never having to pretend to be just one thing." — Chris Willman, Variety

"So what kind of album is it? It's a journey." — Shane O'Neill, The Washington Post

The album's length works against it, though it doesn't ruin the overall effect.

"It could have used some editing. For its five-year gestation, nearly 80-minute runtime, and history-making ambitions, 'Cowboy Carter' still feels somewhat undercooked." — Chris Kelly, The Washington Post

"At 1 hour 18 minutes long, it's a lot to take in one sitting and being in the saddle does start to chafe, but there's enough gold here to keep the stars and stripes aloft." — Alan Pedder, The Line of Best Fit

"There are moments when it starts to feel less like a coherent statement than one of those long 21st-century albums that offers listeners a selection box of tracks to pick and choose playlist additions from. Or perhaps its wild lurches into eclecticism are the point. Unwieldy as it is, it displays its author's ability to bend musical styles to her will." — Alexis Petridis, The Guardian

"Some of the time — not most, but some — 'Cowboy Carter' is boring . It's too long . There are too many ballads. There are too many sketched-out acoustic lullabies that almost function as skits.

"But even when it's boring , 'Cowboy Carter' is nowhere near bad . The whole thing is put together so meticulously." — Tom Breihan, Stereogum

Despite its ambitious scope, the album still feels intimate. "Cowboy Carter" doubles as a political statement and a personal ode to Beyoncé's roots.

"Hitting her stride immediately with powerful curtain raiser 'Ameriican Requiem,' Beyoncé wastes no time in laying out her country credentials and pain at having them so coldly dismissed . But it's not sympathy she's after; if mainstream country can't stand her, she'll leave it choking in the sawdust as she hoedowns on regardless." — Alan Pedder, The Line of Best Fit

"Throughout it all, Beyoncé's hands are confidently and charismatically on the reins. The righteous zeal of her mission, and the giddy range of sonic adventuring, repeatedly gave me chills I haven't felt since the release of 'Lemonade.' Back then she was fighting for her marriage. Now she's fighting for a major culture shift." — Helen Brown, The Independent

"Legacies — musical ones, family ones — have been a theme of Beyoncé's music. Sometimes she's correcting artistic history and blending genres. Sometimes she's inserting her children into her art. One way or another, she's always tugging at roots." — Helena Andrews-Dyer, The Washington Post

"Beyoncé leans into the art of storytelling that is so central to country music, reflecting on authenticity, roots, legacy, and purpose—and offering a sharp contrast to the unassailable pop star veneer we typically see from the singer." — André-Naquian Wheeler, Vogue

"'Cowboy Carter' is such a grand statement of intent that it feels like it could be her ultimate say on identity and purpose. The fact that it's coming from outside her usual wheelhouse makes it even more impressive." — Neil Z. Yeung, AllMusic

"Ya Ya" is an eclectic highlight, blending Beyoncé's soulful voice with nods to Nancy Sinatra and The Beach Boys.

"What do you get if you take a sample of Nancy Sinatra's 'These Boots Are Made for Walkin,' mix it with an interpolation of the Beach Boys' 'Good Vibrations' and douse the whole concoction in the essence of Tina Turner?

"Well, you get 'Ya Ya,' of course, the best song on 'Cowboy Carter.'" — Kyle Denis, Billboard

"On the bonkers 'Ya Ya,' she tells us she's above 'petty' prejudice because she's 'a clever girl.' A boast she then backs up by spinning a sample of Nancy Sinatra's 'These Boots are Made for Walkin' into quotes from The Beach Boys' 'Good Vibrations,' staking her family's claim to life in America and calling on her ladies to 'pop it, jerk it, let loose' to a funky country soul groove." — Helen Brown, The Independent

"The best song on 'Cowboy Carter' is 'Ya Ya.' Following another snappy introduction from Martell, Beyoncé basks in an echo effect on her girlish vocals as she finger snaps and calls for a beat. You can picture the video of her high-stepping and hair-flinging as she slinks and slides around the retro groove." — Melissa Ruggieri, USA Today

"The song is sure to be a showstopper when she gets her ya-yas out on tour." — Mankaprr Conteh and Joseph Hudak, Rolling Stone

"II Most Wanted," a duet with Miley Cyrus, is another critical favorite.

"'II Most Wanted,' on the other hand, feels effortlessly top-drawer country. Miley Cyrus was born with this kind of song in her mouth, and Beyoncé more than holds her own." — Alan Pedder, The Line of Best Fit

"Beyoncé magnanimously offers Cyrus the opening verse, and the twosome trade lines, not sparring, but complementing. Sometimes they sound like a modern-day Thelma and Louise ('I'll be your shotgun rider 'til the day I die'), steeped in limitless loyalty as they reflect on aging and love. The skipping acoustic guitar is a mere backdrop to these vocal powerhouses, with Cyrus' gravel the equilibrium to Beyoncé's honey." — Melissa Ruggieri, USA Today

"It's the reimagining of 'Landslide' as a Bonnie-and-Clyde anthem, 'II Most Wanted,' that most deftly melds the past and the present. Miley Cyrus and her whiskey rasp hold their own as two pop chameleons ponder a day when they won't be young." — Chris Kelly, The Washington Post

"As two of contemporary pop's most powerful voices, they could have easily tried to out-diva each other — but the resulting track is tastefully restrained." — Shaad D'Souza, Pitchfork

Business Insider's senior music reporter rates the album a 9.3/10.

The sequel to "Renaissance" is yet another feat of vocal finesse, archival research, and most of all, sonic cohesion.

Considering Beyoncé's exceptional discography, this shouldn't be surprising. But her ability to reference her forebears, assemble a diverse team of collaborators, and still create a lucid, unified project — like a conductor leading an orchestra — will never fail to boggle my mind .

Even the interludes on "Cowboy Carter" aren't skippable. However brief, they're always essential to the album's narrative and pulse. Amid the free-flowing brilliance, standout tracks include "Bodyguard," "Jolene," "II Most Wanted," "Ya Ya," and "Tyrant."

Beyoncé's big-picture vision is also what allows her to thrive in so many musical styles. She sees connective tissue and subtle shapes where other artists do not. Beyoncé doesn't simply adapt to a genre; she unspools, analyzes, interprets, and refashions it in her own image.

There's a very good reason she declared, "This ain't a Country album. This is a 'Beyoncé' album."

"Cowboy Carter" is explicitly invested in subverting the very notion of genre, with all its constraints and contrived prestige. It argues that each artist's unique approach is more important than any label or wrapper.

It's a winning argument.

Worth listening to:

"Ameriican Requiem"

"Blackbiird"

"16 Carriages"

"Protector"

"Texas Hold 'Em"

"Bodyguard"

"Spaghettii (feat. Shaboozey)"

"Alliigator Tears"

"Just For Fun"

"II Most Wanted (feat. Miley Cyrus)"

"Levii's Jeans (feat. Post Malone)"

"Oh Louisiana"

"Desert Eagle"

"Riiverdance"

"II Hands II Heaven"

"Sweet Honey Buckin"

Background music:

"Smoke Hour with Willie Nelson"

"Smoke Hour II"

"The Linda Martell Show"

Press skip:

*Final album score based on songs per category (1 point for "Worth listening to," .5 for "Background music," 0 for "Press skip").

• Main content

Climate change is delaying world clocks' need for a 'negative leap second'

Climate change has been blamed for many dramatic effects on our planet and our lives. Now it may even affect the measurement of time.

You've probably heard of "leap seconds" — the sliver of time scientists occasionally add to the world's official time standard to resolve a divergence between old-fashioned time-telling and modern atomic clocks.

But we're nearing a year when a negative leap second could be needed to shave time — an unprecedented step that will depend in part on how climate change affects the Earth's rotation, according to a new study.

Here's an overview of the unusual situation, which is laid out by geophysicist Duncan Agnew, in a study published Wednesday in “ Nature .”

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Why is one second such a big deal?

In our technologically interconnected era, many devices and systems rely on sharing a certain awareness of precisely what time it is. While leap seconds have largely been absorbed into current mechanisms, experts say, a negative leap second — or, a minute with only 59 seconds — could pose an entirely new challenge.

"Even a few years ago, the expectation was that leap seconds would always be positive, and happen more and more often," Agnew said on the website of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego .

But because of new dynamics affecting how fast the Earth rotates, he added, a negative leap second now seems just years away.

"One second doesn't sound like much, but in today's interconnected world, getting the time wrong could lead to huge problems," he said.

Leap seconds have had critics for a long minute, in part because of the havoc they can wreak on things like online reservation and retail systems. A couple years ago, engineers at Meta railed against it , stating, "Introducing new leap seconds is a risky practice that does more harm than good" and should be replaced.

Worth noting: "In 2012, a leap second caused a major Facebook outage, as Facebook's Linux servers became overloaded trying to work out why they had been transported one second into the past," the Data Center Dynamics website noted.

Why do we have leap seconds?

They were created as a way to reconcile deviations between traditional astronomical time and the newer international reference based on atomic clocks, known as Coordinated Universal Time or UTC. It's a process that for years has been complicated by variations in the Earth's rotation.

"By the 1960s, Earth was and had been decelerating, and so rotating more slowly than in the nineteenth century, which defined the atomic second," Agnew writes.

The first leap second was added in 1972. In the first decades, it became nearly an annual process. In the past 23 years, scientists have added only four leap seconds, according to Agnew.

"Since 1972, irregularities in Earth's movement have called for 27 leap seconds to be added — at irregular intervals and with a maximum of only 6 months' notice each time," said Patrizia Tavella, director of the Time Department at the International Bureau of Weights and Measures in France, in a discussion published in Nature along with Agnew's research.

The current problem, Agnew says, is that Earth's rotation now seems to be gradually getting faster than the established time standard can account for.

How is climate change involved?

First things first: Earth's rotation isn't neat like a well-spun top. There's a distinct wobble — and it can be affected by a number of factors, from powerful earthquakes to what's going on in the planet's core to how water is distributed.

The dynamics are complex; there's even a gravitational field produced by huge ice sheets and glaciers to take into account.

Decades ago, scientists noticed the Earth was slowing down. But more recently, they've seen the planet's rotation speeding up. In the summer of 2022, NPR even noted one of the shortest days ever recorded.

And here's where things get a bit weird. Human-induced climate change actually acts to slow down the planet's rotation, Agnew says, because when ice melts at the poles, the planet gets a bit more oblong — wider at the equators — and less spherical. That means Earth spins a little slower, like when an ice skater holds their arms out, rather than pulling them in.

The net result for timekeepers, the new research says, is that climate change seems to have delayed the potential need for a negative leap second, at least for a bit.

"According to Agnew's calculations, changes in polar ice mass have delayed this eventuality by another three years, to 2029," writes Harvard University geophysicist Jerry Mitrovica in Nature's discussion of the new study.

Are we ready for a negative leap second?

"A negative leap second has never been added or tested, so the problems it could create are without precedent," Tavella wrote.

"Metrologists [not a typo: a metrologist studies and applies the science of measurement] around the world are following the unfolding discussion attentively, with the view to avoiding any unnecessary risks," she said.

Agnew notes that while leap seconds have been added without incident, it remains to be seen how computers and networks will handle subtracting time.

"Many systems now have software that can accept an additional second, but few if any allow for removing a second," Agnew said, "so that a negative leap second is expected to create many difficulties."

Other solutions could present themselves. In 2022, the General Conference on Weights and Measures decided to eliminate the leap second by 2035. The organization could decide to eliminate the potential of a negative leap second sooner than that deadline.

Agnew suggests the groups that determine UTC should adopt a new rule: "never allow" a negative leap second.

Copyright 2024 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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