Psychology Commons^™

Passive Facebook Usage Undermines Affective Wellbeing: Experimental And Longitudinal Evidence, Jiyoung Park, Philippe Verduyn, David Lee, Holly Shablack, Ariana Orvell, Joseph Bayer, Oscar Ybarra, John Jonides, Ethan Kross

Psychological and Brain Sciences Faculty Publication Series

Prior research indicates that Facebook usage predicts declines in subjective well-being over time. How does this come about? We examined this issue in 2 studies using experimental and field methods. In Study 1, cueing people in the laboratory to use Facebook passively (rather than actively) led to declines in affective well-being over time. Study 2 replicated these findings in the field using experience-sampling techniques. It also demonstrated how passive Facebook usage leads to declines in affective well-being: by increasing envy. Critically, the relationship between passive Facebook usage and changes in affective well-being remained significant when controlling for active Facebook use, …