Facebook Use Predicts Declines in Subjective Well-Being in Young Adults

Online social networks are rapidly changing the way human beings interact. Over a billion people belong to Facebook, the world's largest online social network, and over half of them log in daily [1]. Yet, no research has examined how interacting with Facebook influences subjective well-being over time. Indeed, a recent article that examined every peer-reviewed publication and conference proceeding on Facebook between 1/2005 and 1/2012 (412 in total) did not reveal a single study that examined how using this technology influences subjective well-being over time (Text S1) [2]. Subjective well-being is one of the most highly studied variables in the behavioral sciences. Although significant in its own right, it also predicts a range of consequential benefits including enhanced health and longevity [3]-[5]. Given the frequency of Facebook usage, identifying how interacting with this technology influences subjective well-being represents a basic research challenge that has important practical implications. This issue is particularly vexing because prior research provides mixed clues about how Facebook use should influence subjective well-being. Whereas some cross-sectional research reveals positive associations between online social network use (in particular Facebook) and well-being [6], other work reveals the opposite [7], [8]. Still other work suggests that the relationship between Facebook use and well-being may be more nuanced and potentially  influenced by multiple factors including number of Facebook friends, perceived supportiveness of one's online network, depressive symptomatology, loneliness, and self-esteem [9], [10], [11]. So, how does Facebook usage influence subjective well-being over time? The cross-sectional approach used in previous studies makes it impossible to know. We addressed this issue by using experience-sampling, the most reliable method for measuring in-vivo behavior and psychological experience over time [12]. We text-messaged participants five times per day for 14-days. Each textmessage contained a link to an online survey, which participants completed using their smartphones. We performed lagged analyses on participants' responses, as well as their answers to the Satisfaction With Life Questionnaire (SWLS) [13], which they completed before and immediately following the 14-day experience-sampling period, to examine how interacting with Facebook influences the two components of subjective well-being: how people feel ("affective" well-being) and how satisfied they are with their lives ("cognitive" well-being) [14], [15]. This  approach allowed us to take advantage of the relative timing of participants' natural Facebook behavior and psychological states to draw inferences about their likely causal sequence [16]-[19].