Less use of Facebook makes you healthier, study finds

Facebook is an inevitable part of modern life.

You can spend hours on Facebook just looking at your friends' photos or commenting on some posts. However, recent research has found that reducing Facebook time by 20 minutes per day makes people happier and healthier.

Researchers at Ruhr University Bochum studied the impact of reducing Facebook usage on people's life.

286 people were involved in the study. All test subjects used Facebook on average for one hour a day. The researchers divided the test subjects into two groups: The 146-strong control group used Facebook as usual. The other 140 people reduced their Facebook use by 20 minutes per day for two weeks.

All participants were tested before the start of the study, after a week, at the end of the two-week experiment, one month and three months later.

The head of the research Dr. Julia Brailovskaia from Research and Treatment Center for Mental Health, Ruhr University Bochum said, “the people who had reduced their use of Facebook used the platform both actively and passively less.” Meaning they were sharing or commenting less and also they were looking at other peoples' posts less.

A relation between envy and well-being

"This is important because passive use, in particular, leads to comparing yourself with others and thus to envy and a reduction in mental well-being" said Brailovskaia.

The participants who had reduced their Facebook use also smoked fewer cigarettes than before, exercised more and showed fewer depressive symptoms than the control group. 

Brailovskaia said, these effects on the improvement of well-being and a healthier lifestyle lasted after the two-week Facebook reduction until the last examination three months later. However, she stressed that this does not mean it is necessary "to do without Facebook."