NDM: Weekly News Article - W/C 9th January (36)

Facebook break can boost wellbeing, study suggests

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/dec/22/facebook-break-can-boost-wellbeing-study-suggests

Summary

Research by University of Copenhagen shows that leaving social media for a week increases life satisfaction especially among heavy users and 'lurkers' which are people who do not actively engage with others on social media. People who pore irritability over the posts of others may benefit the most. Morton Tromholt of Copenhagen Uni Sociology Dept, says findings suggested the changes in behaviour for example heavy users spending less time on Facebook could yield positive results. 

Key Statistics

• Study involved 1,095 people
• 86% of people involved were women
• Participants average age was 34
• They had 350 Facebook friends
• Spent just over an hour a day on social media, which had 1.79 billion active users in the third quarter of last year (2016)

My Opinion

It is no secret the use of social media can result in some scary findings. We all use social media platforms even if we do not have our own profile because we look at other people's public profiles particularly news journalists who publish stories on their accounts. However, I do not think anybody has ever considered the effects of social media to the lengths that this study by Copenhagen University has so I think that people should definitely take the time to read what the study says and digest it. Many parents of young kids try to limit there use of social media but soon they are going to be fulled immersed in the digital life so they need be able to use it but it should still be controlled so much so that parents do not loose their kids completely to this world if this is what these findings have found. However, this research was carried out on 34 year old (average age) so I think it is a bit of biased study because even kids use it so the results would be different for everybody dependent on their usage and age. I think the study should have had a wider age range to test and then people may be more likely to take such publications into consideration.