The happiest moment of your life? Many will undoubtedly answer the day your child was born. We can choose that moment as the highest scale of happiness, as a milestone in our life, which we remember in a special way. A cluster is difficult to explain but many would summarize it: happiness. Well, according to one study, it might seem that using Facebook can bring us similar satisfaction to having a baby or to marry. As you read
This is a study carried out by the social network itself and by the Carnegie Mellon University of Pittsburgh (United States). It sounds to me that churras are being mixed with merines, but the research justifies (or tries) this conclusion. Because although the owner has been this in some media, really the data that allow to draw such conclusions are minimal.
What happens is that the use of the most popular social network provides the user with interactions with friends and family, relationships that are taken care of and that can provide us with feelings of satisfaction similar to those that address us when having a baby or getting married. But such immense happiness, as it has jumped in the headlines?
Well it seems that for some, yes ... but for very few people to draw conclusions and affirm this question categorically (although it would be enough with a little common sense and having gone through it to see that it is not the same). In addition, we should not confuse the happiness of having a baby (and congratulate you very much on Facebook for it) to the happiness of any comment on the social network.
Happiness is not given by the number of comments
The study, published in the "Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication", is the result of the investigation of Facebook accounts and the activity of about 2000 users of this social network from 19 countries over three months. The average age of the users, quite active on Facebook, was 46 years. It was tried to verify how the different interactions provided them with psychological well-being.
Following also the activity of six close friends of each participant, the researchers found that not just any Facebook activity gives people warm feelings of well-being, but specifically comments or messages from closer and more personalized connections on Facebook.
In this sense, the research title points out: "The relationship between the use of Facebook and well-being depends on the type of communication and the strength of the link." And it is what is checked and what seems obvious: that the more contact we have with our closest friends, the happier we are (and surely this is also true for other networks, for the phone and even when we see each other face to face ).
The lead author of the study (research scientist on Facebook) said that both private and public messages can ensure the well-being of the recipient, if they come from those close friends, who remind us of important relationships in our lives (as I said, sure that staying with them for a drink when you can also increases our well-being).
But a few simple comments do not give "happiness." To reach that milestone of feel as if you had been a mother or father (or like your wedding day) you have to get more comments than your close friends (who compares each other's interactions?), specifically about 60 more average comments. This is what happened to a few users who had either had a baby (or to whom a new member of the family, nephew ...) or those who had married over those three months. They received many more comments and felt happy (what leads to what?).
But it was very few people who went through these circumstances (less than 5% of the total) and no direct cause-effect relationship was found, nor do we know how they measured that happiness, what kind of users they chose (with children, married ...) or how the surveys were, so the gaps are immense and without clear conclusions.
In fact, another of the vital events that also gave satisfaction on Facebook was the death of a family member (for the messages of support). What I was saying, churras and merinas ... And then, the headline could have been: "Facebook gives the same happiness as when a relative dies." But here our circuits would have released sparks ...
What seems clear is that This study ignores other less positive sides of the use of the social network (Do not forget that Facebook also participates in it), such as the fact of the loneliness that hides behind certain uses, insecurities or the increase in the tendency to depression or anxiety when not everything works as we want on the network ... And it is that many other studies, which you might want to counter, point out that using Facebook can make people feel more depressed.
In short, I keep that Facebook entertains, has fun at times, it helps you to get in touch with people you had lost track of ... but it doesn't give you happiness. Better look for it elsewhere and it doesn't have to be with children or with a wedding either. Who knows what it feels like to see your baby for the first time can hardly compare it to what a social network gives us, for many interactions and likes we have.
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