Should You Use Facebook?
Facebook, the ultimate social network, has been known for its ability to allow people to connect with others. The term, “friend”, has been stretched to include acquaintances and colleagues. As a result, one’s network expands much more easily and rapidly—with people being the nodes, and edges being the friend relations. Although it has broadened our connections, such that our networks now include much more nodes than before, it may not necessarily mean a good thing.
As The New Yorker points out in its article, “How Facebook Makes Us Unhappy,” research has indicated that Facebook caused participants’ overall satisfaction to decline. Interestingly, “people’s sense of happiness and social connectedness dropped” after they started going online. Although the goal of Facebook is to connect people, it ended up having the opposite effect—people felt alienated and lonely. Furthermore, feelings of jealousy increased, due to social comparison. According to the researchers, because Facebook allows the user to learn about the lives of others and vice-versa, the user feels that he should live up to an image that’s comparable to peers. Comparing to real-life interactions, a University of Michigan study found that those who interact the most offline tended to become unhappier when using Facebook, because they are more aware of other’s lives by obtaining information from two mediums.
Positive and negative relations come into hand here. Assuming that a user would accept a friend request based on a favorable relationship, the relation can become negative due to Facebook. Relations worsen due to envy. Looking at this on a larger scale, with the same assumption that friend acceptances are based on positive relationships, all the triangles formed would be balanced, with all positive relationships. Eventually, they will turn negative, due to the effects of Facebook, causing unbalanced networks. Of course, there exists the possibility that the triangles can become balanced, with two negative relationships and one positive. Nevertheless, this shows Facebook can change the balance of an all positive network.
On the other hand, other studies have shown that Facebook can make one happier. The discrepancy can be explained by how users use Facebook. Those who actively interact with others increase their satisfaction levels and feel less lonely, as opposed to those who simply scroll through the news feed, without engaging with it. In addition, according to a TIME article, Facebook has the ability to spread the same emotion among others. Positive posts can make others feel good, and due to the expansive network of Facebook, the happiness spreads to even more people. This doesn’t necessarily change the sign of an edge, but it shows an advantage of using the social network.
Source: http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/how-facebook-makes-us-unhappy
http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2013/08/19/213568763/researchers-facebook-makes-us-sadder-and-less-satisfied
http://time.com/21901/being-on-facebook-can-actually-make-us-happier/