Facebook makes people less happy, study finds
Deactivating the social network left people less informed but happier, researchers find
Deactivating Facebook for just four weeks can lead to an improvement in people's mental health, according to a new study.
Researchers at New York University and Stanford University studied the impact of quitting the social network on their behaviour and state of mind.
Entitled The Welfare Effects of Social Media, the study took place in the run-up to the 2018 midterm elections and involved 2,844 users who used the platform for more than 15 minutes each day.
Facebook deactivation among the participants resulted in an increase in offline activities such as socialising with family and friends.
It also caused an increase in subjective well-being. However, it also led to the person being less informed about current events.
How to stop Facebook from revealing everything about you
Show all 9
How to stop Facebook from revealing everything about you
1/9 Lock your profile down
If you haven’t done this already, do it now. In Settings, hit the Privacy tab. From here, you can control who gets to see your future posts and friends list. Choose from Public, Friends, Only Me and Custom in the dropdown menu.
2/9 Limit old posts
Annoyingly, changing this has no effect on who’s able to see your past Facebook posts. Instead, on the Privacy page, you have to click on Limit Past Posts, then select Limit Old Posts and finally hit Confirm on the pop-up.
3/9 Make yourself harder to find
You can stop completely random people from adding you by selecting Friends of Friends from the dropdown menu in the Who can send you friend requests? section of the Privacy page. It’s also worth limiting who can find your Facebook profile with your number and email address.
At the bottom of the page is the option to prevent search engines outside of Facebook from linking to your profile.
4/9 Control access to your Timeline
You can limit who gets to post things on your Timeline and who gets to see posts on your Timeline too. In Settings, go to Timeline and Tagging and edit the sections you want to lock down.
5/9 Block people
When you block someone, they won’t be able to see things you post on your Timeline, tag you, invite you to events or groups, start conversations with you or add you as a friend. To do it, go to Settings and Blocking. Annoyingly, you have to block people on Messenger separately.
You can also add friends to your Restricted list here, which means they’ll still be friends with you but will only be able to see your public posts and things you share on a mutual friend's Timeline.
6/9 Review tags
One of Facebook’s handiest privacy features is the ability to review posts you’re tagged in before they appear on your Timeline. They’ll still be visible on the News Feed while they’re fresh, but won’t be tied to your profile forever. In Timeline and Tagging, enable Timeline review controls.
7/9 Clean up your apps
You can view a list of all of the apps you’ve connected to your Facebook account by going to Settings and Apps. The list might be longer than you expected it to be. It’s worth tidying this up to ensure things you no longer use lose access to your personal information.
If you don’t want to log into websites and apps with your facebook account, scroll down and turn Platform off.
8/9 Change your ad preferences
You can view a list of everything Facebook thinks you’re into and tinker with your ad preferences by going to Settings and Adverts. A lot more information is displayed on the desktop site than the app, so we’d recommend doing this on a computer.
9/9 Download your data
Facebook lets you download all of the data it has on you, including the posts you’ve shared, your messages and photos, ads you’ve clicked on and even the IP addresses that are logged when you log in or out of the site. It’s a hell of a lot of information, which you should download to ensure you never over-share on the social network again.
1/9 Lock your profile down
If you haven’t done this already, do it now. In Settings, hit the Privacy tab. From here, you can control who gets to see your future posts and friends list. Choose from Public, Friends, Only Me and Custom in the dropdown menu.
2/9 Limit old posts
Annoyingly, changing this has no effect on who’s able to see your past Facebook posts. Instead, on the Privacy page, you have to click on Limit Past Posts, then select Limit Old Posts and finally hit Confirm on the pop-up.
3/9 Make yourself harder to find
You can stop completely random people from adding you by selecting Friends of Friends from the dropdown menu in the Who can send you friend requests? section of the Privacy page. It’s also worth limiting who can find your Facebook profile with your number and email address.
At the bottom of the page is the option to prevent search engines outside of Facebook from linking to your profile.
4/9 Control access to your Timeline
You can limit who gets to post things on your Timeline and who gets to see posts on your Timeline too. In Settings, go to Timeline and Tagging and edit the sections you want to lock down.
5/9 Block people
When you block someone, they won’t be able to see things you post on your Timeline, tag you, invite you to events or groups, start conversations with you or add you as a friend. To do it, go to Settings and Blocking. Annoyingly, you have to block people on Messenger separately.
You can also add friends to your Restricted list here, which means they’ll still be friends with you but will only be able to see your public posts and things you share on a mutual friend's Timeline.
6/9 Review tags
One of Facebook’s handiest privacy features is the ability to review posts you’re tagged in before they appear on your Timeline. They’ll still be visible on the News Feed while they’re fresh, but won’t be tied to your profile forever. In Timeline and Tagging, enable Timeline review controls.
7/9 Clean up your apps
You can view a list of all of the apps you’ve connected to your Facebook account by going to Settings and Apps. The list might be longer than you expected it to be. It’s worth tidying this up to ensure things you no longer use lose access to your personal information.
If you don’t want to log into websites and apps with your facebook account, scroll down and turn Platform off.
8/9 Change your ad preferences
You can view a list of everything Facebook thinks you’re into and tinker with your ad preferences by going to Settings and Adverts. A lot more information is displayed on the desktop site than the app, so we’d recommend doing this on a computer.
9/9 Download your data
Facebook lets you download all of the data it has on you, including the posts you’ve shared, your messages and photos, ads you’ve clicked on and even the IP addresses that are logged when you log in or out of the site. It’s a hell of a lot of information, which you should download to ensure you never over-share on the social network again.
Researchers also found that people who deactivated their Facebook accounts were more likely to see a persistant reduction in their use of the app after the experiment.
"Our study offers the largest-scale experimental evidence available to date on the way Facebook affects a range of individual and social welfare measures," the authors wrote. "Deactivation caused people to appreciate Facebook’s both positive and negative impacts on their lives."
Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Independent but in a statement to The Washington Post a spokesperson said its teams are working on fostering meaningful connections across its platform.
"This is one study of many on this topic and is should be considered that way," they said.
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