Study: Facebook can bring happiness

Comments from close friends improved well-being while likes did not

But it’s not as simple as hitting the “like” button.

So says a study from research at Carnegie Mellon University that examined Facebook users’ activity logs over several months, along with self-reported assessments of their psychological well-being. The study found that personalized Facebook comments from close friends led to statistically significant improvements in well-being, but that “one-click” communications such as likes did not.

“Likes are valuable for a lot of different reasons but in this case, we found that likes didn’t boost feelings of well-being — instead, comments did,” said Moira Burke, co-author of the study. “A comment is a signal that you care a lot about the person that you are sending it to.”

That finding is somewhat in contrast with numerous previous studies that have linked Internet use and depression.

The reason for the difference may be because this study, published in the July issue of the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, analyzed data points over several months, versus previous studies that just surveyed users at one point in time.

“Most studies in this space are not designed to show cause and effect,” said Ms. Burke, a research scientist at Facebook who conducted the research for this study while she was a PhD student at Carnegie Mellon. “They can’t tell whether using the Internet a lot makes you lonely, or whether you are using the Internet a lot to make you feel better.”

Data for this study was collected from 1,910 participants in 91 countries over three months in 2011. The researchers were given access to their activity logs to analyze their Facebook activity.

Co-author Robert Kraut, a Carnegie Mellon professor of human-computer interaction who has been studying the Internet and happiness since 1996, believes that this study was able to isolate the positive feelings because it separated different types of communication and different levels of friendships.

The study found statistically significant increases in psychological well-being only in substantive communications, such as personalized comments, and not in “one-click” communications, such as likes. 

It also found that those personalized communications needed to come from Facebook friends with close ties, versus mere acquaintances.

In fact, getting an above-average number of comments in a given month increased a user’s psychological well-being to a level that was roughly similar to them getting married, Ms. Burke said.

One theory to explain the results is that personalized communication can improve well-being by reinforcing existing social networks. 

“What seems to be important in real life and online life is feeling that there’s a set of people that you can reach out to when you’re in need,” Mr. Kraut said.

So with this knowledge, is he now commenting to his Facebook friends instead of liking their posts?

Not exactly.

“I have to admit that I hardly use Facebook,” he said, with the exception of seeing pictures of his grandchildren. “I have too many other things to do.”

The Block News Alliance consists of The Blade and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Anya Sostek is a reporter for the Post-Gazette.