While I am not a social scientist I recognize the impact of social science findings on the areas I work in and this paper is no different. This study was conducted by researchers from Stanford and was released in November of 2019. They created a randomized experiment where some people were paid to deactivate Facebook for 4 weeks and over that time and after were asked about their well-being and news consumption among other questions.
As an older millennial Facebook came to Northeastern when I was there in 2004 and I have had an account ever since. Back then you had a wall and it was only college students, today most users (at least in the US) are beyond college age. There are tons of articles out there about the ills of social media and also how to stop using it.
I rarely look at Facebook, I don’t have the app on my phone anymore so I have to navigate their from the web. I do not miss it, which is consistent with the findings in this study. I am still on Instagram and I read Twitter daily so it is possible my social media habits are satisfied in other ways.
So what blew my mind about this study? Let’s look at the results.
“Our results leave little doubt that Facebook provides large benefits for its users. Even after a four week “detox,” our participants spent substantial time on Facebook every day and needed to be paid large amounts of money to give up Facebook. Our results on news consumption and knowledge suggest that Facebook is an important source of news and information. Our participants’ answers in free response questions and follow-up interviews make clear the diverse ways in which Facebook can improve people’s lives, whether as a source of entertainment, a means to organize a charity or an activist group, or a vital social lifeline for those who are otherwise isolated.”
Conclusion
Needing to be paid to give up Facebook is a red flag but then again think about how much I would need to pay you to give up your phone for 4 weeks. If you dig into the results of this study you see that different people use Facebook very differently but find great value in visiting the site daily, even after leaving it for a month during the 2018 Midterm elections.
Now on to the good that deactivating Facebook can do.
“We find that four weeks without Facebook improves subjective well-being and substantially reduces post-experiment demand, suggesting that forces such as addiction and projection bias may cause people to use Facebook more than they otherwise would. We find that while deactivation makes people less informed, it also makes them less polarized by at least some measures, consistent with the concern that social media have played some role in the recent rise of polarization in the US.”
Conclusion
What blew my mind here is that people had reduced demand to go back after leaving Facebook. The other findings that people feel better and some of the squishier social science factors are also interesting. The takeaway here is that if you feel Facebook isn’t good for you then just stop and it will get easier. Remove the app from your phone, delete the bookmark in your browser, etc.