Everyone wants to be happy. The thing is, much of what determines happiness is beyond our control.
While there are people genetically predisposed to see the bright side of life, others are not so fortunate and generally have a negative outlook. Bad things are just around the corner; people can be mean, and jobs are incredibly stressful.
Although we're still lucky, we get to control how we spend our leisure time. That's the reason why it's important to ask which activities are linked to happiness and which ones drain our good mood.
For a lot of people, the internet and social media are a normal part of life. We use all sorts of platforms on the internet to entertain ourselves, as well as communicate with our friends and family.
Technology has the power to connect people, but in spite of this fact, why aren't we any happier? A study titled "Facebook Use Predicts Declines in Subjective Well-Being in Young Adults" may very well have the answer.
The authors of the study observed that the participants had a general decrease in life satisfaction marked by their usage of Facebook. There were several questions, including how they felt, how much time had been spent on the platform, and how much real human interaction they had for the day.
Researchers found that the more participants spend time on Facebook, the more they reported feelings of loneliness and a lower level of life satisfaction in general. On the other hand, the study also noted that those who had more real-life interaction with people reported an increase in happiness.
It may be hard to grasp the idea of internet addiction, but it exists. Its symptoms aren't the same as alcohol or drug addiction, but people are prone to developing an abnormal psychological dependence on technology.
Our brains are wired to crave the rewards that social media can give us, no matter how much one would try to deny it. Receiving likes and good comments stimulate the production of two happy hormones -- oxytocin and dopamine --, and when levels of such hormones rise, our mood is much lighter, and we feel included and connected.
Despite the link between mental health and social media, however, many people still can't get off of it or at least try and lessen our time on it. Admittedly, it's difficult, but what's important is to understand and realize that our health and wellbeing come first before any sort of validation.
