Recording 2025-06-25 190529

Alex

6/25/2025

Presentation

Transcript

00:00Hi everyone, my name is Alex Scott and today I'll be presenting a research article titled

00:04Facebook's Use Predicts Deadlines in Subjective Well-Being in Young Adults by Ethan Cross and

00:09Colleagues. This study caught my attention because we live in a world where social media plays a

00:14huge role in our daily lives, especially platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and now TikTok. But even

00:19though these platforms are supposed to help us feel connected, the researchers in this study

00:25question whether that's actually the case when it comes to our mental health and happiness.

00:33Before diving into this study, it's important to understand the context of the research. By 2013,

00:39Facebook had already become one of the most dominant social networking platforms in the world,

00:43especially among young people. The common assumption was that Facebook, by allowing

00:48constant connection and communication, would improve people's subjective well-being,

00:53which basically means how people experience their life, the quality of their life, and emotional

00:58states. But the researchers questioned this idea. They believed that Facebook might not actually

01:04make us feel better. It might, in fact, make us feel worse over time. So they developed two main

01:10hypotheses. The increased use of Facebook would predict decline in moment-to-moment effect, meaning

01:17that people would report feeling worse emotionally the more they used Facebook. And also, the increased

01:26Facebook use would also lead to lower overall life satisfaction over a short time period. In this

01:33case, just over two weeks. In short, the researchers wanted to see if Facebook actually damages our happiness.

01:39Let's look at how the researchers tested these ideas. They conducted a longitudinal experiment sampling

01:48study, which means they followed people over time and collected real-time data about their experiences.

01:56There were 82 young adults in this study, most of them whom were college students with the average

02:01age of 19. All participants were regular Facebook users and had smartphones.

02:10For two weeks, participants received five texts daily, five messages per day at random intervals.

02:18Each time, they were asked to complete a quick survey that measured how they felt in that moment,

02:22whether they were feeling happy, sad, stressed, or anything else, and also how much they had used Facebook

02:29since the last prompt, and how much face-to-face interaction they had with other people.

02:41At the beginning and end of this study, participants also completed surveys measuring depression,

02:46loneliness, self-esteem, and overall life satisfaction. This method allowed researchers to track both short-term

02:51emotional changes and long-term trends in well-being based on how much people used Facebook.

02:55The results were surprisingly clear and consistent. First, when participants used Facebook more

03:02frequently, they tended to feel worse emotionally. In other words, increased Facebook use was associated

03:07with declines in moment-to-moment happiness that was measured within the same day. Second, when the

03:11researchers looked at data across the entire two-week period, they found that more Facebook

03:16participants used overall, the more likely they were to report the drop in life satisfaction by the end of the study.

03:24What's important is that these effects were not explained away by any other factors, even after

03:34controlling for depression, self-esteem, the number of Facebook friends, and how socially connected people

03:39felt. The negative relationships between Facebook use and well-being still held up. Interestingly,

03:46the researchers also found that face-to-face interactions were positively related with well-being,

03:51so talking to people in person made participants feel better, while using Facebook made them feel

03:56worse. This contrast is really important. It shows that not all social interactions are equal

04:01when it comes to mental health.

04:13The big takeaway here is that Facebook use might not actually undermine mental health well-being,

04:17at least for young adults. Even though Facebook and other platforms like are meant to connect us,

04:22that connection may not be meaningful enough to fulfill our emotional needs. In fact, the more time we

04:26spend on comparing ourselves to others, scrolling through curated photos, watching others lives

04:32unfold, the more likely we are to feel left out, lonely, or inaccurate.

04:38This study challenges the common belief that digital communication is a valid substitute for real-world

04:42interaction. It suggests that we need more to be conscious and careful about how we use social media,

04:48especially for using it in ways to feel connected. From a mental health standpoint, these findings have

04:57major implications. For clinicians who may want to ask about social media during intake interviews,

05:04for schools that could educate students about their health media habits, and for all of us,

05:10as a reminder to prioritize real-life connections over screen time.

05:21Of course, no study is perfect. There are a few important limitations in the research.

05:28Sample size and demographics. The sample was small, only 82 people, and they were young adults in the US.

05:34This means the result might not apply to older adults, teenagers, or people from different cultures.

05:39There were also self-reporting. Prism has self-reported their Facebook use, which can be,

05:43can introduce bias. Some might underestimate or overestimate their use. And there was also

05:50no contact analysis. The study didn't look at what people were doing on Facebook. For example,

05:54passively scrolling through others' posts might have a different impact than actively messaging friends

05:59or posting your own content. So while these results are compelling, they are also just one

06:04piece of a much larger puzzle about digital life and mental health.

06:09To wrap it up, I'd like to post these discussion questions based on the article.

06:13How might different types of Facebook activity, like passively scrolling versus actively posting,

06:19affect emotional well-being differently? In other words, is the amount of time spent on Facebook

06:24that matters, or is it how we use it? This could open up an important follow-up research. Maybe passive

06:29use, where you're just watching and comparing yourself to others is harmful, but maybe active use,

06:36like messaging friends or sharing something meaningful isn't bad. This distinction could

06:39help us move away from the idea that all social media is negative and towards the nuanced understanding

06:44of what healthy online behavior looks like. Thanks so much for listening to my presentation. I hope this

06:51study gave you something to think about regarding how we use social media and how it might be affecting

06:55our emotional health in ways we don't even notice. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on the discussion

07:00questions. Thank you.

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