Facebook Is Still Making Us Feel Rubbish About Ourselves, A New Study Shows

Research has found that Facebook may be more damaging to our self-esteem than traditional media, and we're totally not surprised

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by Olivia Marks |
Published on

When Facebook first turned up in our lives, people couldn't stop banging on to non-users about how great it was, about how it had allowed them to reconnect with someone they'd spent two days with in Cusco during their gap year. How it made organising parties so much easier.

But now that anyone worth stalking is savvy enough to have their profile settings set to NSA levels of privacy, and we've all realised that sending a group email is just as effective a way to make plans as a creating a Facebook group, it's getting harder and harder to justify why we use Zuckerberg's social networking site.

Especially as it's making us feel so rubbish about ourselves. Yet another study has revealed that Facebook is having a damaging affect on our self-esteem – especially amongst young women.

Researchers at the Universiy of Strathclyde, Ohio Univesity and the University of Iowa surveyed almost 900 students about their Facebook use, as well as body image, exercise and eating habits.

It will probably come as little surprise to many of you seasoned Facebookers that the researchers found that the more time the women spent on the site staring at other people's selfies, the more they were likely to feel crappy about their own physical appearance.

Not only that, but the study warned that Facebook may be more damaging to women's self-esteem than traditional media.

Is it time we all deactivated those accounts?

Picture: Rory Dcs

This article originally appeared on The Debrief.

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