‘No evidence’ of harm from Facebook use, study finds

The study found that claims that Facebook was linked negatively to wellbeing were “more speculative than conclusive”, despite other academic studies having associated psychological harms with use of social media.

The research was based on wellbeing data from Gallup covering almost one million people across 72 countries between 2008 and 2019 and also used individual usage data from millions of Facebook users worldwide.

Facebook was involved in the research, but only to provide data and did not commission or fund the study, with researchers from the company helping to make sure the data was accurate but not privy to the results before publication nor able to influence the design of the study, according to the research team.

The researchers also investigated differences relating to age and gender, and found that the association between Facebook adoption and wellbeing was slightly more positive for males than females, although none of the trends were significant.

Facebook adoption and wellbeing was also generally more positive for younger individuals, according to the research, in a small but significant way.

Andrew Przybylski, co-author of the study and professor of human behaviour and Technology at the University of Oxford explains, “We examined the best available data carefully – and found they did not support the idea that Facebook membership is related to harm, quite the opposite. In fact, our analysis indicates Facebook is possibly related to positive wellbeing.

“This is not to say this is evidence that Facebook is good for the wellbeing of users. Rather, the best global data does not support the idea that the expansion of social media has a negative global association with wellbeing across nations and different demographics.”

Co-author Professor Matti Vuorre, psychological researcher at Tilburg University, said: “Much of the past research into social media use and well-being has been hampered by an exclusive focus on well-being data in the global north and a reliance on inaccurate self-reports of social media engagement.

“In our new study, we cover the broadest possible geography for the first time, analysing Facebook usage data overlaid with robust wellbeing data, giving a truly global perspective of the impact of Facebook use on wellbeing for the first time.”