Apparently 5 Minutes On This Social Media Site Can Help Boost Your Self-Esteem

Ah, social media. The cause of anti-socialism, lack of human interaction and world of online trolls and disagreements. 

But according to a new study, spending 5 minutes on this site can boost your mood and self-esteem. Really?

We’re not so sure how true this one really is, however…

Research conducted in the University of Derby by psychology lecturer, Dr Zaheer Hussain and researcher, Adam O’Sullivan found that spending a mere 5 minutes scrolling through Facebook can make you feel good and boost your self-esteem. Hmm.

The pair studied 163 Facebook users between the ages of 18-24 to record if stress, self-esteem and narcissism could predict the intensity of their use of Facebook. Also to see if short sessions of using the social media site could have instant psychological effects.

They found that if a person has a higher level of stress there are more likely to use their Facebook. 

We can picture the stalking of ex’s pages, looking to see how many likes you got on your recent post and who liked your profile picture. We guess it can be stressful to try keep up with the status quo.

The other big finding being that there was a ‘significant’ increase in self-esteem when users logged on for a quick 5 minute session once a day. Interesting.

In the first 5 minutes Dr Hussain said it gave a “momentary increase in self-esteem” because people browsed, “their close friends, chatted with them, or viewed positive content.”

Maybe we should consider browsing Facebook for a shorter amount of time if these positive results will happen…

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