The burden of online friends: The effects of giving up Facebook on stress and well-being
Open accessAbstract
People occasionally choose to cut themselves off from their online social network by taking extended breaks from Facebook. This study investigated whether abstaining from Facebook reduces stress but also reduces subjective well-being because of the resulting social disconnection. Participants (138 active Facebook users) were assigned to either a condition in which they were instructed to give up Facebook for 5 days or continue to use Facebook as normal. Perceived stress and well-being, as well as salivary cortisol, were measured before and after the test period. Relative to those in the Facebook Normal condition, those in the No Facebook condition experienced lower levels of cortisol and life satisfaction. Our results suggest that the typical Facebook user may occasionally find the large amount of social information available to be taxing, and Facebook vacations could ameliorate this stress-at least in the short term.
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Experimental evidence on the link between social media use and well-being is mixed.
“while experimental evidence is mixed8,9.”
From Windows of developmental sensitivity to social media (2022) · cites this paper as [8]
Such studies are lacking because ensuring participant compliance is challenging, and published ones fail to show consistent results.
“Such studies are lacking because ensuring participant compliance is challenging [4,49], and those published fail to show consistent results [50,51,52].”
From The Conceptual and Methodological Mayhem of “Screen Time” (2020) · cites this paper as [50]
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- Authors
- Vanman, E. J., Baker, R., & Tobin, S. J.
- Affiliations
- The University of Queensland (AU)
- Australian Catholic University (AU)
- Corresponding author
- Vanman, Eric J.
- Venue
- The Journal of Social Psychology
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2018-04-09
- Volume
- 158
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 496-508
- ISSN
- 0022-4545 (ISSN-L)
- 1940-1183
- OpenAlex
- W2793688098
- Cited by
- 168
- References
- 39
- Citations by year
- 2026: 13 · 2025: 24 · 2024: 21 · 2023: 18 · 2022: 11 · 2021: 27 · 2020: 33 · 2019: 18 · 2018: 3
- FWCI
- 49.50
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Update notices
- correction (2019-05-14)
- Open access
- green
- eprints.qut.edu.au
- Locations
- The Journal of Social Psychology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- QUT ePrints (Queensland University of Technology) (submittedVersion)
- OSF Preprints (OSF Preprints) (submittedVersion)
- OSF Preprints (OSF Preprints) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Impact of Technology on Adolescents
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Technostress in Professional Settings
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Science Applications › Digital Media and Philosophy
- Keywords
- Facebook, social media withdrawal, social media detox, perceived stress, subjective well-being, life satisfaction, salivary cortisol, social disconnection, social networking sites
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Female, Humans, Interpersonal Relations, Male, Personal Satisfaction, Social Isolation, Stress, Psychological, Social Networking, Social Media
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