Mental Health

Are You a Facebook Addict? A Study Answers Why

By Kanika Gupta | Update Date: Dec 29, 2015 10:05 AM EST

Have you ever been urged to look at Facebook couple of times in a day? Have you tried to quit the site, only to find yourself coming back to it again? A new study published by the Cornell Information Science at Cornell University in USA may have the answers to your questions. An article published recently by the researchers of Cornell University analyze the 5,000 surveys completed by participants who took part in the Dutch Project, 99 Days of Freedom. According to this project, the participants are invited to give up their social media network for a period of 99 days or even more if they want. Surveys were conducted on 33, 66 and 99 days to understand the participant's moods throughout the period of the project. This sample was then shared with the Cornell University researchers who wanted to quit the habit of using Facebook but couldn't do it, reported Hindustan Times.

After studying this information, the researchers revealed four main reasons that made them come back. The biggest reason why people find it hard to quit using Facebook was attributed to perceived addiction. One participant described this habitual aspect by saying, 'In the first 10 days, whenever I opened up an internet browser, by fingers would automatically go to 'f',' reported Daily Mail.

Cornell also discovered other reasons such as impression management, use of other networks and mood as the common factors for people who find it hard to quit using Facebook and couldn't stay logged off for too long. Eric Baumer, research associate at Cornell, said in the study that the people with impression management find it the hardest to stay logged off for too long. "What we're thinking is happening there is people who are more concerned with impression management are more likely to go back to Facebook," Baumer said. "Because if you're not on Facebook, you can't do a really good job of managing what other people are thinking of you," said New York Daily News

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