Weekly New Digital Media - 28.12.16 (31)

Facebook break can boost wellbeing, study suggests

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

Summary: Researches find that leaving social network for a week increases life satisfaction, especially among heavy users and ‘lurkers.  Research by the University of Copenhagen showed the effects of quitting for a week were also strong among heavy users and those who envied their Facebook friends, suggesting that people who pore irritably over the posts of others may benefit the most. In addition, they have also mentioned that questionnaires were conducted at the beginning and end of the week indicated that taking a break from the site increased life satisfaction and positive emotions. The effects of quitting were found to be greater among heavy users, passive users and those who envied others on the social network. There was no positive effect of taking a break for light users. 


[]one average, the age 34, had 350 Facebook friends and spent just over an hour a day on the social network, which had 1.79 billion monthly active users in the third quarter of this year. 

In my opinion, this research it is quite interesting, being a person who doesn't have Facebook or isn't a heavy user of social networking, I am not impacted by what is on the sites. From the research, I agree that people shouldn't be using and relying on social networking as it isn't healthy nor it benefits the person generally, many people forget their surroundings and the environment they are in because they are mostly engrossed in the networking sites and what is shown on there. Changing behaviour can be hard, as through in the long term it would be very beneficial to people, so i think the most realistic approach to this is that people take it in steps, firstly reducing the time they spend and then slowly go from there. Social networking can be addictive due to the the interactions and how people can relate but some of the ways which the internet is develpoing especially social networking sites, can be harmful towards an audience.