Social media aestheticism is a practice not common to western culture (or really anyone). Escaping Instagram, Facebook, or Snapchat seems impossible (almost like an addiction), even unthinkable. Researchers at Stanford realized the addictive nature of social media, thus offering generous compensation for students who deleted Facebook for at least a montg. Surprisingly, on average an individual reported accepting no less than $1000 yearly for cutting ties to their virtual lives on social media. This is exactly what New York Time’s Benedict Carey writes about in his article, This Is Your Brain Off Facebook, in which he finds that quitting the social media platform has its benefits.
Long before Facebook breached the trust of its users (sharing user data without consent), researchers have been curious (even concerned) about the influence it was having on their habitual daily life. Carey’s article dives into the question of what occurs in an individual after quitting Facebook specifically. He talks about the effects manifesting immediately. Benefits including more quality time with loved ones, less politically knowledge but less “partisan fever”, and on average an extra one hour of downtime daily when deleting Facebook.
The study that Carey’s article was based off of was conducted by researchers at Stanford University and New York University, and was posted on the Social Science Research Network. This study makes clear the influence that Facebook has on an individual’s behavior and thought processes. Aaron Kelly, a 23 year old student in Madison, Wisconsin described that his Facebook visits were more out of compulsion than genuine intentionality. He went on to say that it is a useful platform but feels like he is wasting his time, using it to either escape from studying or sooth his boredom. He participated in this study "because it was kind of nice to have an excuse to deactivate and see what happened".
The study consisted of about 3000 individuals who filled out baseline questionnaires that inquired about their habitual daily patterns, political affiliation, and personal wellness. Half of the 3000 individuals were told to deactivate their Facebook account for a month with the compensation being $100. The researchers, over the course of this month, would text subjects to assess their wellbeing and would make sure their accounts were not re-activated (they found that text messaging was more accurate and efficient than having participants fill out a long questionnaire). After the month had passed, both experimental (those who deactivated their Facebook account) and the control group (those who did not deactivate their Facebook account) filled out surveys that monitored changes that may have occurred in the individual since the experiment’s beginning.
Those who deactivated their account found that they obtained up 1-2 hours of extra downtime daily. Their political knowledge decreased in comparison to before they deactivated their accounts and scores measuring political polarization decreased by 5-10 percent (no change for the control group). Carey writes that the most “striking” aspect of this study, is those that deactivated their Facebook account experienced a small, yet positive mood increase as well as obtaining some kind satisfaction with their lives (wow). This unearths the common thought of constant and consistent use of social media can cause real psychological suffering. More habitual users of Facebook mood’s did not in fact improve by a greater increment in comparison to those who frequented on the platform much less. This indicates that those who used Facebook more habitually, “heavy users”, had previously unstable moods prior to Facebook usage. Dr. Ethan Kross, a psychology professor from University of Michigan noted that “... we need to know more about how and when social media use impacts well-being, not conclude that the relationship doesn’t exist”.
The debate of social media’s effect on mental health has been primarily focused on
adolescents and children, not on an older population. This was the emphasis of a new study. This experiment (not given specific details about in Carey’s article) gave evidence thus supporting the addictive behavior that social media mediates in individuals. Post study, those who abstained from Facebook planned on decreasing their habitual routine of checking Facebook for the near the future. It was interesting, after adults who had finished the Facebook deactivation for a month were finished with their trial, they were asked hypothetically what their expected compensation should be, and it dropped below $100. Maybe there is some good to logging off for an extended period of time, and put that 1-2 hours of downtime to good use. Maybe petting your dog more, laughing with loved ones, or sleeping. Imagine a world where you are able to get 1-2 extra hours of sleep a night because you are not addicted to a Facebook.
Citation:
Carey, Benedict. “This Is Your Brain Off Facebook.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 30 Jan. 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/01/30/health/facebook-psychology-health.html.
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