Study: Quit The Facebook, It Can Bum You Out
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- If you're feeling sad... Stop updating your status!
Or checking others.
A new study finds quitting Facebook can improve your over all feeling about life.
"I''ve taken a break and i feel much better," Tracey Grant tells Eyewitness News.
"I definitely agree. I definitely feel out of the social loop... more to myself a lot more privacy," Jake Madnick said.
Jake Madnick has been off facebook for two years and he says he left the drama behind with it.
"Friends that I had that would post things that I would find being a little strange," Madnick says.
The study conducted by the Happiness Research Institute shows people who gave up Facebook for just one week reported higher levels of satisfaction.
Over all, users were 39% more likely to feel unhappy than the non-users.
About 88% of non-users described themselves as happy, compared with 81% of people on Facebook.
"We can fall into this pattern of comparing ourselves... And feeling a sense of dissatisfaction because everything looks so perfect in their pictures on social media."
Social Media Expert Annie Heckenberger says the behavior of checking a page to see what friends are up to is addicting and forces us to make comparisons or feel like we have to keep up with the Jones.
"I think 50 years ago people who looked out their windows and felt neighbors had a better car, house, lawn, better looking family... may have felt disappointment. Social media is no different, it allows us to do it on a bigger scale and on a more rapid pace," Heckenberger explains.
Others say it's still a good way to reconnect with old friends.
"If you're using it for the right purpose to network or connect with people, I think it's really great," Taylor Frankel, a Facebook user, explains.
"I'm finding people who weren't of the same cliques are actually getting together off Facebook," says another Facebook user, Cheryl Santos.
