What is the effect of Facebook on your mental health?

It is not easy to put an end to the most widespread digital habit in the world, not even in the face of moral anger at the privacy risks and political divisions that created Facebook, or amid concerns about how habit affects emotional health.

Although four out of ten Facebook users report taking long breaks in the social network, the digital platform continues to grow. A recent study found that the average user should pay between 1000 and 2000 dollars to escape from your account for a year.

So what happens if you give up really? A new study, the most complete to date, offers a lead.

You should know that you will immediately see the consequences: you will spend more time with your friends and family in person. You'll know less about politics, but you'll also be less prone to partisan fever. You will have slight mood swings in the day and you will be satisfied with life. And if you're like an average Facebook user, you'll have an extra hour of leisure a day.

The study, conducted by researchers at Stanford and New York Universities, helps clarify the discussion about Facebook's influence on the behavior, thinking and politics of its monthly active users, which represent about 2300 million people in all countries. world The study was recently published on the Public Access Social Science Research Network website..

A body of psychologists has supported for years that the use of Facebook and other social networks is related to mental problems, especially among adolescents. Others have compared Facebook's habitual use with mental illness, with addiction and even published magnetic resonance images that "what does Facebook addiction look like in the brain"

When Facebook released its own badysis to refute these claims, the company was widely criticized.

A Facebook press secretary said the following about the new essay mentioned in the study: "Facebook generates great benefits for its users", and "any discussion of the disadvantages of social networks should not overshadow the fact that 'they conform deep and widespread needs'.

The new study, a randomized trial, describes a nuanced and balanced picture of daily use that probably does not satisfy those who criticize the platform or those who support it.

(The trial, along with similar badyzes conducted by other research groups, has not yet been reviewed by other experts. The New York Times he asked five independent experts to review the methodology and conclusions).

The researchers (led by Hunt Allcott, professor of economics at New York University and Matthew Gentzkow, economist at Stanford) They used Facebook ads to recruit participants over 18 and spend at least 15 minutes a day on the platform.; the daily average was one hour, while those who used it most often did so between two and three hours or more.

Nearly three thousand users accepted and filled in long questionnaires asking them about their daily activities, their political opinions and their mental state in general.

Half of the users were randomly invited to DISACTIVATE your account Facebook for a month in exchange for a payment. The price agreed upon for payment has generated great interest for researchers: how much is monthly access to photos, comments, Facebook groups, friends and news? The study found that the cost is about 100 dollars on average.

During the month of abstinence, the research team regularly reviewed participants' Facebook accounts to ensure that those who had agreed to leave the platform were not reactivating them. (Only one percent did it).

Participants also received SMS messages regularly to badess their mood. This type of real-time monitoring is thought to produce a more accurate psychological badessment than, for example, a questionnaire provided a few days later.

Some participants stated that they had not noticed the benefits of the platform before closing it. "Of course, my connection with people has failed me, but I've also seen live events on Facebook Live, especially those related to politics, when you know you're watching the content with d & # 039; Other people interested in the same thing, "said Connie Graves, 56, a professional nurse at home in Texas who participated in the study. "And I realized that I also like having a place where I can get all the information I want: pum, pum, pum, here it is."

She and the rest of those who abstained had access to Facebook's messaging service throughout the study. Messenger is a different product and the research team has decided to allow it because it looks a lot like other interpersonal communication services..

At the end of the month, those who abstained and the control subjects returned to answer long questionnaires that badessed changes in their mental state, political awareness and partisan pbadion, as well as fluctuations in their daily activities. (online and offline), from the beginning of the experience.

For abstainers, the break with Facebook released them an hour a day on average and more than double the most frequent users. They also reported that they had spent more disconnected time, especially with their friends and family and in front of the television.

"I would have expected a higher rate of use of other digital platforms to replace Facebook (Twitter, Snapchat, online browsing)," said Gentzkow of Stanford. "It was not like that and, at least, as far as I'm concerned, it was a surprise"

The most surprising result of the study could be that turning off Facebook had a small positive effect in the mood of people and in the satisfaction that they felt with their lives. The discovery alters the widespread badumption that regular use of social networks can cause real psychological problems.

A previous survey did not distinguish if mood problems occurred after prolonged use or if moody people tended to be the most frequent users. The new study supported this last explanation.

In an interview, Ethan Kross, professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, who had previously done research on the mood and use of social networks, said that he was too much early to draw conclusions about the psychological effects of Facebook. . He mentioned two recent, randomized, and smaller studies in which it was discovered that the mood of users improved when access to social networks was restricted.

"We need to know more about the impact of using social networks on the mood and on the moment not only to conclude that the correlation does not exist."or it's very light," says Kross.

Until now, the discussion about the effects of social networks on mental health has also been focused primarily on children and adolescents, not on the older population that was the focus of this new study.

"It's quite possible and likely that the dynamics of social networks and wellness will be different for adolescents aged 30 and older," said Jean Twenge, psychologist and author of iGen: Why Today's Super -Connected Children grow up less rebellious, more tolerant, less happy.

Psychologists and computer scientists have argued that social networks are addictive and that very few habitual users of Facebook would disagree. The new experience has provided ample evidence to support: In the end, participants who left the social network for a month said that they planned to use Facebook less often, what they did, so they reduced their old habit .. at least for a while.

About ten percent continued to abstain a week later, compared to the three percent of the control group, who had voluntarily deactivated their account; and five percent abstained two months later, compared to one percent in the control group.

Financial incentives have had similar results. At the end of the one-month study period, the researchers asked people who were abstaining how much money they would need to be paid to stay disconnected from Facebook for another month. This time, the cost was reduced to less than $ 100 … but not in all cases.

"I asked for 200 US dollars for four additional weeks," said Graves, the Texan participant who has not yet returned to Facebook. "Minimum".

Copyright: The New York Times 2019 Press Office.