The researchers — led by Hunt Allcott, an associate professor of economics at N.Y.U., and Matthew Gentzkow, a Stanford economist — used Facebook ads to recruit participants over age 18 who spent at least 15 minutes on the platform each day; the daily average was an hour, with heavy users logging two to three hours, or more.
For abstainers, breaking up with Facebook freed up about an hour a day, on average, and more than twice that for the heaviest users. They also reported spending more time offline, including with friends and family, or watching TV.
The most striking result from the study may be that deactivating Facebook had a positive but small effect on people’s moods and life satisfaction. The finding tempers the widely held presumption that habitual social-media use causes real psychological distress.
But previous research could not discern whether mood problems followed heavy usage, or moody people tended to be the heaviest users. The new study supported the latter explanation.
“It is entirely possible, and likely, that the dynamics of social media and well-being are different for teens versus those ages 30 and over.”
See the full story here; https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/30/health/facebook-psychology-health.html?utm_campaign=the_download.unpaid.engagement&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=69473914&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_cAW6fWqvybT7S0YFmVJuD3qTAhIvFFJraq9ucRNtpcCFVip-9yEyA09ohmMEPEiBB10u8WOHRanuD92qwwc8O7LKD1w&_hsmi=69473914