The DOI matches its Crossref record; 38 of the 39 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
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.
Overview
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The cited source says what the claim attributes to it.
In the citing paper
“while experimental evidence is mixed8,9.”
From Windows of developmental sensitivity to social media (2022) · cites this paper as [8]
In the citing paper
“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]
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Citations
Cites
A Global Measure of Perceived Stress
Cohen, S., Kamarck, T., & Mermelstein, R. (1983) · Journal of Health and Social Behavior · doi:10.2307/2136404 · Cited by 32,807
Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: The PANAS scales.
Watson, D., Clark, L. A., & Tellegen, A. (1988) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.54.6.1063 · Cited by 32,433
The satisfaction with life scale
Diener, E., Emmons, R. A., Larsen, R. J., & Griffin, S. (1985) · Journal of Personality Assessment · doi:10.1207/s15327752jpa4901_13 · Cited by 31,768
Dickerson, S. S., & Kemeny, M. E. (2004) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/0033-2909.130.3.355 · Cited by 5,881
The Psychological Meaning of Words: LIWC and Computerized Text Analysis Methods
Tausczik, Y. R., & Pennebaker, J. W. (2010) · Journal of Language and Social Psychology · doi:10.1177/0261927x09351676 · Cited by 5,774
Review of the Satisfaction With Life Scale.
Pavot, W., & Diener, E. (1993) · Psychological Assessment · doi:10.1037/1040-3590.5.2.164 · Cited by 3,611
Review of the Satisfaction With Life Scale
Pavot, W., & Diener, E. (2009) · Social indicators research series · doi:10.1007/978-90-481-2354-4_5 · Cited by 3,462
A 61-million-person experiment in social influence and political mobilization
Bond, R. M., Fariss, C. J., Jones, J. J., Kramer, A. D. I., Marlow, C., Settle, J. E., & Fowler, J. H. (2012) · Nature · doi:10.1038/nature11421 · Cited by 2,575
Neocortex size as a constraint on group size in primates
Dunbar, R. I. M. (1992) · Journal of Human Evolution · doi:10.1016/0047-2484(92)90081-j · Cited by 2,542
The Development and Psychometric Properties of LIWC2015
Pennebaker, J. W., Boyd, R. L., Jordan, K., & Blackburn, K. (2015) · University of Texas at Austin · doi:10.15781/t25p41 · Cited by 1,674
Facebook Use Predicts Declines in Subjective Well-Being in Young Adults
Kross, E., Verduyn, P., Demiralp, E., Park, J., Lee, D. S., Lin, N., Shablack, H., Jonides, J., & Ybarra, O. (2013) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0069841 · Cited by 1,596
Stress Effects on Neuronal Structure: Hippocampus, Amygdala, and Prefrontal Cortex
McEwen, B. S., Nasca, C., & Gray, J. D. (2016) · Neuropsychopharmacology · doi:10.1038/npp.2015.171 · Cited by 1,574
A Review of Facebook Research in the Social Sciences
Wilson, R. E., Gosling, S. D., & Graham, L. T. (2012) · Perspectives on Psychological Science · doi:10.1177/1745691612442904 · Cited by 1,226
Do social network sites enhance or undermine subjective well-being? A critical review
Verduyn, P., Ybarra, O., Résibois, M., Jonides, J., & Kross, E. (2017) · Social Issues and Policy Review · doi:10.1111/sipr.12033 · Cited by 1,209 · cited 1×
“It is also important to note that the zero-order correlations at the first session indicated that perceived stress was positively related to passive Facebook use, whereas life satisfaction was positively related to active Facebook use, which is contrary to the conclusions of Verduyn et al. (2017).”
ResultSocial network activity and social well-being
Burke, M., Marlow, C., & Lento, T. (2010) · Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems · doi:10.1145/1753326.1753613 · Cited by 1,109
Cortisol awakening response and psychosocial factors: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Chida, Y., & Steptoe, A. (2009) · Biological Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.biopsycho.2008.10.004 · Cited by 1,032 · cited 1×
“Discrepancies between salivary cortisol responses and subjective measures of stress are common in studies of stress (e.g., Brant, Wetherell, Lightman, Crown, & Vedhara, 2010; Chida & Steptoe, 2009; Simpson et al., 2008), and thus may reflect methodological issues that go beyond this study.”
BackgroundPassive Facebook usage undermines affective well-being: Experimental and longitudinal evidence.
Verduyn, P., Lee, D. S., Park, J., Shablack, H., Orvell, A., Bayer, J., Ybarra, O., Jonides, J., & Kross, E. (2015) · Journal of Experimental Psychology: General · doi:10.1037/xge0000057 · Cited by 988 · cited 2×
“Verduyn et al. (2015) found similar negative outcomes associated with Facebook use, particularly when people used it passively (i.e., just reading other people’s posts).”
BackgroundFacebook as a toolkit: A uses and gratification approach to unbundling feature use
Smock, A. D., Ellison, N. B., Lampe, C., & Wohn, D. Y. (2011) · Computers in Human Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.chb.2011.07.011 · Cited by 948
The uses and abuses of Facebook: A review of Facebook addiction
Ryan, T., Chester, A., Reece, J., & Xenos, S. (2014) · Journal of Behavioral Addictions · doi:10.1556/jba.3.2014.016 · Cited by 714
Burke, M., Kraut, R. E., & Marlow, C. A. (2011) · CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems · doi:10.1145/1978942.1979023 · Cited by 707
Giving too much social support: social overload on social networking sites
Maier, C., Laumer, S., Eckhardt, A., & Weitzel, T. (2014) · European Journal of Information Systems · doi:10.1057/ejis.2014.3 · Cited by 658
Vogel, E. A., Rose, J. P., Okdie, B. M., Eckles, K., & Franz, B. (2015) · Personality and Individual Differences · doi:10.1016/j.paid.2015.06.026 · Cited by 632
Sheldon, K. M., Abad, N., & Hinsch, C. (2011) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/a0022407 · Cited by 514 · cited 1×
“We reasoned that abstaining from Facebook would lower life satisfaction because it normally makes us feel connected to others, which meets a fundamental need (Sheldon et al., 2011; Tobin, Vanman, Verreynne, & Sari, 2015).”
BackgroundSocial Comparison 2.0: Examining the Effects of Online Profiles on Social-Networking Sites
Haferkamp, N., & Krämer, N. C. (2011) · Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking · doi:10.1089/cyber.2010.0120 · Cited by 457
The Facebook experiment: Quitting Facebook leads to higher levels of well-being
Tromholt, M. (2016) · Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking · doi:10.1089/cyber.2016.0259 · Cited by 419
Online social network size is reflected in human brain structure
Kanai, R., Bahrami, B., Roylance, R., & Rees, G. (2012) · Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences · doi:10.1098/rspb.2011.1959 · Cited by 391
Sagioglou, C., & Greitemeyer, T. (2014) · Computers in Human Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.chb.2014.03.003 · Cited by 387 · cited 2×
“Similarly, Sagioglou and Greitemeyer (2014) found that the longer participants used Facebook in a single session, the more negative was their mood afterwards.”
BackgroundDiTommaso, E., Brannen, C., & Best, L. A. (2004) · Educational and Psychological Measurement · doi:10.1177/0013164403258450 · Cited by 303
Appel, H., Crusius, J., & Gerlach, A. L. (2015) · Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology · doi:10.1521/jscp.2015.34.4.277 · Cited by 229
Threats to belonging on Facebook: Lurking and ostracism
Tobin, S. J., Vanman, E. J., Verreynne, M., & Saeri, A. K. (2015) · Social Influence · doi:10.1080/15534510.2014.893924 · Cited by 171
Researchers’ Intuitions About Power in Psychological Research
Bakker, M., Hartgerink, C. H. J., Wicherts, J. M., & van der Maas, H. L. J. (2016) · Psychological Science · doi:10.1177/0956797616647519 · Cited by 158
Social cognition on the Internet: testing constraints on social network size
Dunbar, R. I. M. (2012) · Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences · doi:10.1098/rstb.2012.0121 · Cited by 148
The uses and gratifications of using Facebook music listening applications
Krause, A. E., North, A. C., & Heritage, B. (2014) · Computers in Human Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.chb.2014.07.001 · Cited by 137
Social Psychophysiology for Social and Personality Psychology
Blascovich, J., Vanman, E. J., Mendes, W. B., & Dickerson, S. S. (2011) · SAGE Publications Ltd eBooks · doi:10.4135/9781446287842 · Cited by 132
Calling All Facebook Friends: Exploring Requests for Help on Facebook
Ellison, N. B., Gray, R., Jessica Vitak, B., Lampe, C. A. C., & Fiore, A. T. (2021) · Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media · doi:10.1609/icwsm.v7i1.14436 · Cited by 82
Brant, H., Wetherell, M. A., Lightman, S. L., Crown, A. L., & Vedhara, K. (2009) · Stress · doi:10.3109/10253890903093778 · Cited by 52
Evolutionary Basis of the Social Brain
Dunbar, R. (2011) · Oxford University Press eBooks · doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195342161.013.0003 · Cited by 51
Salivary cortisol, stress and mood in healthy older adults: The Zenith study
Simpson, E. E. A., McConville, C. F., Rae, G., O’Connor, J. M., Stewart-Knox, B. J., Coudray, C., & Strain, J. (2008) · Biological Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.biopsycho.2007.12.001 · Cited by 50
Research works printed but not linked: 3
- Ellison N. B., 2013, Paper presented at the 7th International AAAI Conference on Weblogs and Social Media
- Kirschbaum C., 2000, Encyclopedia of stress, 379
- 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2007.12.001 · DOI
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Teenagers, screens and social media: a narrative review of reviews and key studies
Orben, A. (2020) · Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology · doi:10.1007/s00127-019-01825-4 · Cited by 706
Social Media and Well-Being: Pitfalls, Progress, and Next Steps
Kross, E., Verduyn, P., Sheppes, G., Costello, C. K., Jonides, J., & Ybarra, O. (2021) · Trends in Cognitive Sciences · doi:10.1016/j.tics.2020.10.005 · Cited by 474
The impact of digital technology use on adolescent well-being
Dienlin, T., & Johannes, N. (2020) · Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience · doi:10.31887/dcns.2020.22.2/tdienlin · Cited by 393
Windows of developmental sensitivity to social media
Orben, A., Przybylski, A. K., Blakemore, S.-J., & Kievit, R. A. (2022) · Nature Communications · doi:10.1038/s41467-022-29296-3 · Cited by 387
Montag, C., Lachmann, B., Herrlich, M., & Zweig, K. (2019) · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health · doi:10.3390/ijerph16142612 · Cited by 387
Metadata
- 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
- Social Sciences › Communication › 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
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
