Have you ever wondered why you keep looking at your Facebook timeline? Well, according to scientists, going on the social media site makes you feel good.
Facebook gives pleasure
According to new Research, even the mere act of looking at something related to the site could be enough to give users a fulfilling feeling of pleasure. It is the desire to keep experiencing that pleasure that keeps people glued to Facebook, and triggers desires when a user is not logged on to the site.
Researchers say that when users decide they no longer want to use the popular socializing app, they miss out on that feeling of pleasure.
They are then assailed by feelings of guilt, upon which they go back on Facebook to cheer themselves up again, then start feeling awful again. Experts say that this behavior is a cycle of self-regulatory failure that keeps Facebook users logging on o, then logging off, over and over again.
Guilt for not using Facebook
The study was conducted by Allison Eden from Michigan State University. According to Allison, the guilt that assails people for their inability to cut out their social media activities could damage their psyche. Researchers are convinced that to avoid such debilitating effects on their well-being, people should consider ways to prevent the temptation to use Facebook regularly. They suggest that people delete the Facebook app from their phone's home screen.
According to Ms. Eden, all forms of media, including social media sites, is on one of the most common goals that people find almost impossible to regulate.
Vicious cycle
To come up with this conclusion, scientists carried out two studies, observing individuals who utilize Facebook a lot, and people who rarely use it. In the first survey, the researchers asked the respondents to either look at something to the social media site - such as its logo - and then at a Chinese symbol.
The respondents were then asked to opine whether the symbol was pleasant or unpleasant to them.
The experts found that after observing the image related to the social media site, people who use Facebook heavily were more likely to find the Chinese symbol unpleasing to them. In the second test, respondents were asked to measure their longings for Facebook.
Here, the researchers discovered that people often caved-in to their desires to use Facebook, ultimately getting caught up in the cycle of failure that could damage their psyche. Researchers say that people are learning that by looking at Facebook, they get rewarded with feelings of pleasure.
