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Does Posting Facebook Status Updates Increase or Decrease Loneliness? An Online Social Networking Experiment
Open accessAbstract
Online social networking is a pervasive but empirically understudied phenomenon. Strong public opinions on its consequences exist but are backed up by little empirical evidence and almost no causally conclusive, experimental research. The current study tested the psychological effects of posting status updates on Facebook using an experimental design. For 1 week, participants in the experimental condition were asked to post more than they usually do, whereas participants in the control condition received no instructions. Participants added a lab “Research Profile” as a Facebook friend allowing for the objective documentation of protocol compliance, participants’ status updates, and friends’ responses. Results revealed (1) that the experimentally induced increase in status updating activity reduced loneliness, (2) that the decrease in loneliness was due to participants feeling more connected to their friends on a daily basis, and (3) that the effect of posting on loneliness was independent of direct social feedback (i.e., responses) by friends.
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“some findings have suggested that SMU has negative implications for mental health when used passively (e.g., scrolling), but potentially improves well-being when used actively (e.g., posting, direct messaging; Deters and Mehl, 2013; Escobar-Viera et al., 2018; Frison and Eggermont, 2020).”
From Investigating the links between objective social media use, attentional control, and psychological distress (2024) · cites this paper as Deters and Mehl, 2013
In the citing paper
“By differentiating the two types of SM activities, prior research suggested that active use could be beneficial in terms of enhancing social connectedness, subjective well-being and reducing loneliness (21–23).”
From COVID-19 stress and addictive social media use (SMU): mediating role of active use and social media flow (2021) · cites this paper as [22]
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Metadata
- Authors
- Deters, F. G., & Mehl, M. R.
- Affiliations
- Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (DE)
- University of Arizona (US)
- Corresponding author
- Deters, Fenne große
- Venue
- Social Psychological and Personality Science
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2012-12-20
- Volume
- 4
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 579-586
- ISSN
- 1948-5506 (ISSN-L)
- 1948-5514
- PMC
- PMC3820167
- OpenAlex
- W2154975162
- Cited by
- 523
- References
- 52
- Citations by year
- 2026: 27 · 2025: 32 · 2024: 44 · 2023: 53 · 2022: 64 · 2021: 67 · 2020: 41 · 2019: 56 · 2018: 36 · 2017: 32 · 2016: 32 · 2015: 23 · 2014: 12 · 2013: 3
- FWCI
- 39.95
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Social Psychological and Personality Science (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Refubium (Universitätsbibliothek der Freien Universität Berlin) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Universitätsbibliothek der FU Berlin Hochschulschriftenstelle u. Dokumentenserver (other-oa)
- Funders
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R01HD069498)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Impact of Technology on Adolescents
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Mental Health via Writing
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion
- Keywords
- Facebook, status updates, loneliness, online social networking, social connectedness, social feedback, social media use, self-disclosure
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