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Facebook Use Predicts Declines in Subjective Well-Being in Young Adults

Overview of attention for article published in PLOS ONE, August 2013
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About this Attention Score

  • In the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • Among the highest-scoring outputs from this source (#16 of 222,997)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (99th percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (99th percentile)

Citations

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1042 Dimensions

Readers on

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2105 Mendeley
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24 CiteULike
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Title
Facebook Use Predicts Declines in Subjective Well-Being in Young Adults
Published in
PLOS ONE, August 2013
DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0069841
Pubmed ID
Authors

Ethan Kross, Philippe Verduyn, Emre Demiralp, Jiyoung Park, David Seungjae Lee, Natalie Lin, Holly Shablack, John Jonides, Oscar Ybarra

Abstract

Over 500 million people interact daily with Facebook. Yet, whether Facebook use influences subjective well-being over time is unknown. We addressed this issue using experience-sampling, the most reliable method for measuring in-vivo behavior and psychological experience. We text-messaged people five times per day for two-weeks to examine how Facebook use influences the two components of subjective well-being: how people feel moment-to-moment and how satisfied they are with their lives. Our results indicate that Facebook use predicts negative shifts on both of these variables over time. The more people used Facebook at one time point, the worse they felt the next time we text-messaged them; the more they used Facebook over two-weeks, the more their life satisfaction levels declined over time. Interacting with other people "directly" did not predict these negative outcomes. They were also not moderated by the size of people's Facebook networks, their perceived supportiveness, motivation for using Facebook, gender, loneliness, self-esteem, or depression. On the surface, Facebook provides an invaluable resource for fulfilling the basic human need for social connection. Rather than enhancing well-being, however, these findings suggest that Facebook may undermine it.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 1,348 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 2,105 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
United States 24 1%
United Kingdom 13 <1%
Spain 6 <1%
Australia 6 <1%
Germany 5 <1%
Japan 4 <1%
Canada 4 <1%
France 4 <1%
Ireland 3 <1%
Other 39 2%
Unknown 1997 95%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Bachelor 402 19%
Student > Master 318 15%
Student > Ph. D. Student 291 14%
Researcher 146 7%
Student > Doctoral Student 114 5%
Other 336 16%
Unknown 498 24%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Psychology 603 29%
Social Sciences 270 13%
Business, Management and Accounting 109 5%
Computer Science 105 5%
Medicine and Dentistry 97 5%
Other 339 16%
Unknown 582 28%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 3307. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 19 January 2024.
All research outputs
#1,827
of 25,576,275 outputs
Outputs from PLOS ONE
#16
of 222,997 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#2
of 208,248 outputs
Outputs of similar age from PLOS ONE
#2
of 4,713 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,576,275 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 99th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 222,997 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 15.8. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 208,248 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 4,713 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its contemporaries.