Spending too much time on social networking sites? The effects could be more sinister than you think…
Like many of the social networking sites created in the last decade of the Internet, Facebook is a worldwide phenomenon. I can remember being in my halls of residence in first year when one of my flat-mates turned on my computer and told me of this new website that I “had’ to join. On telling him I already used MySpace, his reply was “you need Facebook’. Persistent I thought, but I was new to University and was willing to do anything that would involve me meeting more people and becoming “friends’. Within a day, everybody in my block seemed to be marveling in this new-found “book, and within a week, the rest of the halls had been caught up in the hype. This shows how powerful and influential such a site can be. Moreover, when naïve young students are involved, this process is propagated even quicker.

If you walk through a computer cluster in the university, it is not unusual to see half of the screens showing Facebook. This doesn’t even count those who are working, but have a craftily hidden window of Facebook, lurking minimized on the screen’s lower toolbar. Facebook has been banned at many places of work for this reason, so that productivity does not suffer. On another point, try and think of your friends of your age, and think of how many of them do not have their own Facebook page. If you can count past one hand (especially if you just count university students), I will be impressed. This pattern is present all around the world; in places of education and work, as well as in homes. The question is, what are the effects that Facebook is having on its 175million (and rising) users. Furthermore, are there instances whereby Facebook use could actually constitute harm?

The still water issue that Facebook may run a bit deeper than just a way of interacting with friends first occurred to me this summer. Whilst at times I had wondered why I had spent the last hour browsing from page to picture to profile to group or even why I had chosen a spot of Facebooking over an essay, I had never thought of how it could be seen as a problem.

It was only whilst relaxing in the foyer of a remote hostel when traveling in Japan last July, when a fellow guest arrived at the reception, that such an issue came to me. After handing over the designated room fare for her stay, the girl in question dropped her bags and bounded over to the computers. There is no prize for guessing the first site that she accessed. It occurred to me then that in a country as interesting and beautiful as Japan, was the compulsion to get onto the site so powerful, that the girl had effectively blocked out such surroundings and focused solely on getting on Facebook as quickly as possible. Having said this, this could have been an isolated case. Maybe her boyfriend had sent her a message? Maybe she needed to access the page to get details about her stay? Or maybe this guest had a deeper yearning for Facebook than your average user.

When back in England and researching potential dissertation topics for my Psychology degree, this moment in the hostel came bounding back to me. With a bit more reading, I discovered that despite the widespread use of Facebook, and other such social networking sites, there is little research investigating the possible negative effects on health and general psychological well being of users. I believed I was onto something.

In the past 6 months, I have designed, conducted and have now started to analyze data from a psychological study, alongside fellow researcher Tom Mountjoy, and under supervision from project leader Catriona Morrison. Previous study has shown that there are parallels between internet-addiction and pathological gambling. Pathological gamblers show an increased arousal, in response to cues related to gambling. Such perceived excitement may maintain motivation for gambling-type behaviors via reinforcement principles. In turn, from this knowledge, it would therefore be expected that problematic Facebook use would share characteristics of pathological gambling, an impulse control disorder. The study was comprised of two parts, one, an in department study whereby 27 participants filled in a questionnaire related to their Facebook use, before having their physiological arousal such as heart rate measured in response to Facebook related, and non-social network related stimuli, and secondly, a Facebook use questionnaire available online, and completed by 1050 people. The questionnaire implemented an adapted form of the Online Cognition Scale (OCS) to measure four separate areas of thought processes relating to social comfort, loneliness/depression, diminished impulse control and distraction. We hypothesized that higher registered scores on the OCS would correlate with higher physiological arousal scores in relation to Facebook related stimuli.

Although the complete results set is pending, initial results showed that there is a relationship between OCS scores and physiological arousal scores. If we could give more information at this stage we would, but unfortunately, due to scientific restrictions, we cannot report any more information until analysis is completed, and the report is approved. However, if the results do turn out to be significant to the study of health psychology, and in particular, addiction type, then we will aim to get our study published.

Interestingly, since the study’s conception, several leading psychologists have also started research in a number of issues regarding Facebook. In Biologist, the journal of the Institute of Biology, Dr Aric Sigman has stated that people’s health could be harmed by the social networks that set out to enrich people’s lives, because in reality, they keep people apart, reducing levels of face-to-face contact. Moreover, this lack of "real" personal interaction social networking, may have biological effects altering the way genes work, disturbing immune responses and mental performance. More shockingly, Sigman suggests that Facebook could increase the risk of health problems as serious as cancer, strokes, heart disease, and dementia.

Sites such as Facebook clearly do have a useful place in society, yet as with other related phenomena, should be used in a healthy fashion. It does beg the question as to how obsessed we are with a concept when Sony Pictures have confirmed they are in the developmental stages of a movie about the creators of Facebook. The Facebook phenomenon is growing faster than the research is keeping up with. More research is needed. What is emerging is that there may be risks involved with such sites, such risks that we hope to highlight as soon as possible.

For more information, or if you are concerned about your Facebook use, please contact:

Facebookstudy2008@gmail.com

Since writing this article Sam Donnison and his research partner Tom Mountjoy have been invited by the British Psychological Society (BPS) to present their dissertation findings at the annual BPS conference in Sheffield on the 26th-27th of June.

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