Five ways to change your Facebook habits - to make yourself (and others) happier

Many of us open up the Facebook app expecting to get a psychological boost – but end up feeling absolutely furious.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, seeing ‘edited highlights’ of other people’s lives isn’t always a pleasant experience.

But while studies have linked Facebook to feelings of envy and depression, it’s all about the way you use the site.

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It’s possible to make yourself – and others – happy on Facebook, studies have shown.

But you need to change the way you use Facebook – and that means cutting down on stalking… and maybe even thinking of others once in a while.

Post something positive

You might not think it, but on Facebook ‘positive expressions spread more than negative’, says University of San Diego professor James Fowler.

Fowler and his team analysed a billion Facebook posts from 100 million users – and found that positive posts generated positive emotional replies from friends.

Happiness spreads on Facebook like a virus, Fowler says.

Fowler says, ‘We should be doing everything we can to measure the effects of social networks and to learn how to magnify them so that we can create an epidemic of wellbeing.’

Give up for a week

Giving up Facebook (for a week, not forever) has been proven to give people a psychological boost.

Danish researchers got 1,095 volunteers to rate their happiness after one group gave up Facebook for a week, and another kept using it daily.

In the group which gave up, self-reported happiness levels (out of 10) went from 7.56 to 8.12.

Don’t just ‘read’ Facebook, interact with people

People who sit browsing Facebook posts and looking at other people’s profiles all day become envious, unhappy and miserable.

But those who post on Facebook and chat with others (ie using the site ‘actively’) don’t show the same decline in happiness levels, University of Michigan researchers say.

‘Facebook undermines how people feel,’ lead researcher Ethan Kross said.

Stop stalking your ex

A University of Houston study found that Facebook use is linked to feelings of depression – and people who ‘stalk’ friends, exes and family are most at risk.

Researcher Mai-Ly Steers said, ‘It doesn’t mean Facebook causes depression, but that depressed feelings and lots of time on Facebook and comparing oneself to others tend to go hand in hand.

‘Most of our Facebook friends tend to post about the good things that occur in their lives, while leaving out the bad.’

Don’t turn to Facebook for support, do it offline

A lot of people turn to Facebook when they’re having a tough time – expecting their friends to rally round and offer support.

But Facebook isn’t a good place to do it, University of Waterloo researchers found – and you’re probably best off turning to people offline.

Bombarding friends with negative news makes them like you less, the study found.

‘If you’re talking to somebody in person and you say something, you might get some indication that they don’t like it, that they’re sick of hearing your negativity,’ says Amanda Forest, a graduate student at the University of Waterloo.

‘On Facebook, you don’t see most of the reactions.’