Social media can be useful for people who seek to de-stress or pass time, for example, while commuting to and from work. But, for some applications such as Facebook, stressed users are at risk of developing a pathological dependence on it, based on a recent study.

As part of the study by researchers from the Mental Health Research and Treatment Center at Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) in Germany, an online survey was carried out on 309 Facebook users ranged from 18 to 56 years old. These users were asked questions which helped the researchers understand their stress levels as well as how much social support they received both offline and online.

They were also asked about the amount of time they spent on Facebook every day, and how they felt whenever they could not be online. It was then shown that the higher the stress level of the user, the deeper their engagement with the social networking site.

One of the study's authors, Julia Brailovskaia explained “Our findings have shown that there is a positive relationship between the severity of daily stress, the intensity of Facebook engagement, and the tendency to develop a pathological addiction to the social networking site.

At the same time, this effect is decreased if users receive support from family and friends in real life. Individuals who don’t experience much support offline are most at risk of developing a Facebook addition.”

 

Identifying social media addiction among employees

If you have ever noticed any of these signs in your staff, they may have an addiction: They spend more and more time on the site, even at their desk; or are preoccupied with Facebook all the time and feel uneasy when they can’t engage with people online.

Source: Human Resources Online 

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