If youre like many users of Facebook, the worlds largest social network, you continue to

check in with your friends via Facebooks website or app on a regular or semi-regular
basis despite your misgivings about the good intentions of Facebooks News Feed
algorithm, the social networks attentive collection of your data, or the number of cat
videos and conspiracy theories you see in your News Feed.

Baby photos can get repetitive, political rants can grow tiresome, comments from people
you never talk to get annoying, and watching all of your friends get married, have kids,
or earn graduate degrees through the steady march of status updates and smartphone
photos can wear on you when youre less-than-satisfied with how your life is going. But
when you close the browser or lock your phone, the low level of annoyance subsides,
and you get back to your life. Right? According to an assortment of studies on the
psychological effects of logging in to the social network, wrong.

Researchers at a number of academic institutions plus at Facebook itself have

conducted an ever-increasing number of studies into how logging in to Facebook,
scrolling through your News Feed, checking up on what your friends and acquaintances
are doing, and posting your own photos and status updates on the social network affect
how you feel about yourself and your life. And a lot of what theyve found doesnt bode
so well for Facebook and for those addicted to checking in to the social network.

Researchers have found that using Facebook frequently is linked to symptoms of

depression. Theyve proven that emotions, both positive and negative, spread easily via
the posts users share on the social network. Theyve found that simply logging in to
Facebook regularly negatively impacts how happy young adults are. And theyve found
that passive participation or feeling ostracized on the social network lead to negative
psychological effects. Read on for the results of four of these studies and then
perhaps consider checking in to the social network a little less frequently, or taking it a
little less seriously when you do.

1. Comparing yourself to your Facebook friends is

depressing
 Source: Thinkstock

The Washington Post reports that research has drawn a connection between Facebook
use and symptoms of depression, thanks to our tendency to compare ourselves and our
lives to the images our friends project on the social network. The study, titled Seeing
Everyone Elses Highlight Reels: How Facebook Usage is Linked to Depressive
Symptoms and published in the Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, found that
The more time you spend on Facebook, the more likely it is for you to feel depressive
symptoms, according to lead author Mai-Ly Steers, a PhD candidate in social
psychology at the University of Houston. The underlying mechanism is social
comparison. So essentially the reason you feel these feelings is that you tend to socially
compare yourself to your friends.

Steers and her coauthors completed two experiments with more than 100 subjects,
measuring their Facebook usage, depressive symptoms, and their tendency to compare
themselves with others. Spending a lot of time on the social network, or visiting it more
frequently, was positively correlated with a tendency to compare oneself to others,
which, in turn, is associated with increased depressive symptoms.
A lot of this likely has to do with social media users tendency to present their lives in the
best light possible, leaving out the more mundane or disappointing details. If youre
looking at your friends highlight reels, you might feel you dont measure up, but that is a
very distorted view, Steers tells the Post. She adds, If the images of our fabulous friend
are causing us to feel more depressed, maybe we need to step away.

2. Your mood is affected by what your Facebook

friends post

Source: Thinkstock

As Vindu Goel reported for The New York Times last summer, Facebook revealed that it
manipulated the News Feeds of more than half a million unsuspecting Facebook users
to alter the emotional content of the posts that they saw. It did so to study whether and
how emotions can be spread on social media. The study, published in the Proceedings
of the National Academy of Sciences and titled Experimental evidence of massive-
scale emotional contagion through social networks (PDF), revealed that Facebook
had altered the number of positive and negative posts in the News Feeds of 689,003
users to see what effect the changes had on the tone of the posts those users then
wrote.

The researchers found that moods were contagious; the users who saw more positive
posts wrote more positive posts, while those who saw more negative posts were more
negative in their own posts. The study highlighted the degree to which Facebook
controls the content its users see, with the algorithm that populates the News Feed
playing a decisive role in choosing which of all of the potential posts will actually end up
in front of a user.

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While Facebook maintained that users consent to this kind of experimentation when
they agree to its terms of service, the Internet was quick to pass judgment on the social
networking giant. Many regarded the study as unethical, if not strictly illegal, even as
others pointed out that Facebook is hardly the only tech company to manipulate aspects
of a products user experience and analyze how users respond. And the study seemed
to clearly violate the principles of academic and psychological research, even as the
researchers behind the study presented their findings as social science.

3. And Facebook itself probably doesnt help your

mood
 Source: Thinkstock

Two years ago, Elise Hu reported for NPR that a study conducted by researchers at the
University of Michigan found that the more frequently young adults used Facebook, the
worse they felt. The study, published in the PLOS ONE journal, found that Facebook
usage led to declines in both moment-to-moment happiness and overall life satisfaction
among college-aged adults.

Researchers tested the variables of happiness and satisfaction in real time on 82

participants, text-messaging them five times per day for two weeks to find out how
Facebook use influenced the way they felt. The participants responded to questions
about loneliness, anxiety, and general emotional wellbeing. While the study didnt deeply
investigate why Facebook made users sadder and less satisfied, coauthor John Jonides
pointed to social comparison as a possibility.

When youre on a site like Facebook, you get lots of posts about what people are doing.
That sets up social comparison you maybe feel your life is not as full and rich as
those people you see on Facebook, he told NPR. The study found that Facebooks
negative effects were most pronounced for users who socialize the most in real life,
with those who did the most face-to-face socializing reporting the most dramatic
Facebook-related mood decline. But the solution, the researchers found, was simple
enough: direct interactions with other people, either face-to-face or over the phone, led
participants to feel better.

4. Lurking or feeling ostracized on Facebook hurts

your self esteem

Source: Thinkstock

Science Daily reported last year that a study published in the journal Social Influence,
called Threats to belonging on Facebook: lurking and ostracism, found that a lack of
active participation on the social network negatively impacts users wellbeing and their
perception that their lives are meaningful.

The researchers conducted two experiments to examine the effects of lurking and
ostracism, which they identified as to threats to a sense of belonging on a social network
like Facebook. In the first study, participants were either allowed or not allowed to share
information on Facebook for 48 hours. Those who werent allowed to share had lower
levels of belonging and meaningful existence.

Young teenagers spend a lot of time in browsing the network, particularly, the
Facebook, as they find it the best form of communication mode. The most
popular mode of networking is, undoubtedly, the Facebook apart from Twitter. It is
fun to use Facebook and Twitter, but there are negative influences if one spends
too much time on them.

Social media is becoming popular and even official communication is carried out
on them as well as personal. Yet, over usage of any media does have its impact,
both positive and negative.

Before observing the negative effects of Facebook, let us have cursory look at
the positive effects of Facebook.

Positive effects of Facebook:

Improvements in moods: As one is able to communicate with far off

friends. By being in touch with friends one feels good. Mood uplifts and one
feels close to ones loved ones

Shyness goes away: Many teenagers go through a phase when they do

not want to interact with others. Browsing on Facebook helps them
communicate with others without interaction. Perhaps, the interaction can be
after a relationship has developed so that the comfort levels are high when
one meets each other. It is a good forum for shy children to socialize

Permits one to develop self-identity: Facebook is a ground for face-to-

face communication which improves self-identity. One can improves ones
communication skill and also relate better to people

10 Negative effects of Facebook on Teens

 Isolation: One can suffer from isolation as one will tend to be glued to the
computer and move out of the house and meet people. Normal socializing
that is interacting with people is also essential. A shy child might prefer to
communicate only through Facebook only and otherwise

Putting on weight: One may put on weight also as one will sit in front of
the computer for a long time and eat. Naturally, one will not have much
exercise and they will suffer from obesity

Abnormal symptoms: Surfing Facebook does show abnormal symptoms

among many teenagers such as depression, excessive aggression,
abnormal anxiety or even normal anxiety. Those suffering from social anxiety
tend to immerse themselves in front of Facebook. Teenagers usual have
emotional problems and are very conscious of their self-image, their bodies
and their looks. If socially, they feel inferior they tend to avoid social
interactions. Obviously, they would like to spend hours sitting writing for the
Facebook

Bad for the eyes: Too much exposure to the computer is bad for the eyes.
Teenagers must go out and spend time in outdoor activities and relish the
fresh air, rather than remain glued to the computer

Communication with strangers: On Facebook communication, it is

possible that one might end up building up relationships with strangers , who
can turn out to be criminals as well. Teenagers are vulnerable and are easily
susceptible to outside influences. Their lifestyles are changing and want to
build up relationships with people who are very hi-fi in their outlook. In this
process, they try to communicate with strangers who perhaps can be very
harmful to them

Lacks emotional connection: There is lack of emotional connectivity

since one does not meet the other person. Feelings when shared in person
have more impact than on Facebook. The feelings of care and warmth are
there when the communication is face to face. There is a decrease in face-to
face communication. Face-to- face communication helps better messaging
 Promotes laziness: Sitting in front of computer and browsing through
Facebook can lead to laziness. It is a sheer waste of time

Causes distractions: Browsing Facebook does distract ones mind from

many other activities. One can be involved in constructive activities that
keeps ones mind healthy. Merely spending hours on Facebook and
conversing via it is not healthy

Lack of body language communication: Body language conveys a lot. In

Facebook browsing there is no body language communication as one does
not interact with another person

Unhealthy sex approach: On Facebook one tends to communicate on

unhealthy sexual practices. There is no healthy sexual interaction as one is
not meeting each other physically. Merely communicating via Facebook can
prove to be detrimental to ones overall self-image and also to mental growth.
Perverted practices can be discussed or the person on the other side may
be a pervert and wants to communicate sexually. Later on he or she may
take undue advantage of the persons weaknesses and try to meet the
person

It is but natural that Facebook can have a positive effect as well as negative
effect. Definitely, one must be careful of the negative impact of Facebook.

Social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace allow you to find and connect with just
about anyone, from a coworker in a neighboring cube to the girl who played Emily in your
high school production of "Our Town" thirty years ago. Browsing these sites can make you
feel connected to a larger community, but such easy, casual connection in an electronic
environment can also have its downside.

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A False Sense of Connection

According to Cornell University's Steven Strogatz, social media sites can make it more
difficult for us to distinguish between the meaningful relationships we foster in the real
world, and the numerous casual relationships formed through social media. By focusing so
much of our time and psychic energy on these less meaningful relationships, our most
important connections, he fears, will weaken.

Cyber-bullying

The immediacy provided by social media is available to predators as well as friends. Kids
especially are vulnerable to the practice of cyber-bullying in which the perpetrators,
anonymously or even posing as people their victims trust, terrorize individuals in front of
their peers. The devastation of these online attacks can leave deep mental scars. In several
well-publicized cases, victims have even been driven to suicide. The anonymity afforded
online can bring out dark impulses that might otherwise be suppressed. Cyber-bullying has
spread widely among youth, with 42% reporting that they have been victims, according to a
2010 CBS News report.

Decreased Productivity

While many businesses use social networking sites to find and communicate with clients, the
sites can also prove a great distraction to employees who may show more interest in what
their friends are posting than in their work tasks. Wired.com posted two studies which
demonstrated damage to productivity caused by social networking: Nucleus Research
reported that Facebook shaves 1.5% off office productivity while Morse claimed that British
companies lost 2.2 billion a year to the social phenomenon. New technology products have
become available that allow social networks to be blocked, but their effectiveness remains
spotty.

Privacy

Social networking sites encourage people to be more public about their personal lives.
Because intimate details of our lives can be posted so easily, users are prone to bypass the
filters they might normally employ when talking about their private lives. What's more, the
things they post remain available indefinitely. While at one moment a photo of friends doing
shots at a party may seem harmless, the image may appear less attractive in the context of
an employer doing a background check. While most sites allow their users to control who
sees the things they've posted, such limitations are often forgotten, can be difficult to
control or don't work as well as advertised.

The Negative Effects of Facebook: Addiction, Social Isolation and

Depression
Facebook is great for communication, networking
and planning events. It is a social media platform
that was designed to connect people and clearly it
achieves this in a number of ways. However,
Facebooks utility and popularity often masks its
more psychologically damaging aspects, of which
there seems to be three: addiction, social isolation
and depression.

A study by Andreassen et al. (2012), published

in Psychological Reports, developed a Facebook
Addiction Scale. In the study, a group of Facebook
users were asked a series of questions and if their
answer to at least four of the questions was often
or very often, these users were deemed to be
addicts. The participant was asked to answer how
often the following have happened during the last
year:

Spent a lot of time thinking about Facebook or

planned use of Facebook?
Used Facebook in order to forget about
personal problems?
 Felt an urge to use Facebook more and more?
Become restless or troubled if you have been
prohibited from using Facebook?
Used Facebook so much that it has had a
negative impact on your job/studies?
Tried to cut down on the use of Facebook
without success?

Again, if four out of six of these questions are

answered with often or very often, then a
harmless Facebook habit is no longer harmless, but
an addiction. Indeed, you can remove the word
Facebook from each of the questions and replace
it with anything else which is habit-forming
gambling, sex, drugs and the respective answers
will also be a good indication of an addiction.

Personally, I could probably answer two or three of

the questions with often, so I wouldnt have a
Facebook Addiction Disorder (FAD), a term which is
gaining popularity, but I might still have a
Facebook habit. The fact that I feel a compulsion to
check Facebook constantly and have trouble going
one day without it suggests that I probably do have
a Facebook habit. Im sure its the same for millions
of other Facebook users. For a minority, the
situation is a lot worse. Some people do not just
feel compelled to use Facebook, but their Facebook
use has become so out of control that it interferes
with work, studies, relationships and normal social
functioning. This is the point when a habit turns
into an addiction or a pathological disorder.

A habit is not without negative effects as well.

Feeling a compulsion to use Facebook, becoming
restless without it and being unable to cut down on
how often you use it can stop you from doing more
fulfilling activities. There was a point when I
intentionally limited myself to use Facebook once a
day, only to check for messages from friends or for
updates on future events. I maintained it for a
while, but it was a conscious effort. Now Ive found
myself getting back into the habit of scrolling down
the News Feed, wasting my time looking into other
peoples lives and gaining nothing positive from it.
This time could be better spent.

In a study conducted by Diana Tamir from Harvard

University, it was found through fMRI scans that
disclosing information about oneself is intrinsically
rewarding. Using social media sites can be
addictive because they allow us to do exactly this.
This study provides evidence for the theory that
individuals place a high subjective value on
opportunities to communicate their thoughts and
feelings to others and that doing so acts on the
reward systems in our brain. The fMRI scans
revealed that this kind of self-disclosure does in
fact release dopamine (the pleasure chemical) in
our brain. I wouldnt be surprised if future studies
found that there is a release of dopamine when one
receives a notification on Facebook. We might
automatically register the notification as a
response to our thoughts and feelings and
dopamine could be released as a result.

Another negative effect of Facebook, which in a

way stems from the problem of habitual use and
addiction, is social isolation. The irony of Facebook
is that it is a force for greater isolation and
loneliness, as well as greater connectivity. Sure,
Facebook can allow us to communicate with old
friends, classmates and people from all over the
world, but the nature of interaction on Facebook is
conducive to more social isolation. Instead of face-
to-face interaction with people we know well, we
are content with cyber-interaction with people we
dont know that well.

And even if we are interacting with close friends

and family on Facebook, this is still no substitute
for real life social interactions; the kind which our
mind is geared towards. The problem with habitual
or addictive Facebook use is that many people do
come to accept this as a substitute. The more time
we spend on the artificial social world of Facebook,
the more isolated we will become. We are a social
species and we depend on hearing anothers voice
and seeing each others facial expressions and
body language for proper human interaction.
Facebook and other social media platforms just
dont meet these requirements.

Furthermore, as future generations begin to use

Facebook at a younger age, social skills which are
picked up from face-to-face interaction will become
harder to develop. Could social media therefore be
partly to blame for the rise in cases of social
anxiety? That said, similar worries were voiced
about the telephone. I think that social media
definitely can (and does) make a lot of us more
socially isolated, but this does not mean that it
cannot be used responsibly and in a beneficial
way. This study, for example, concludes
that Facebook is useful because it can create and
maintain 'social capital' (networks of relationships)
and actually contribute to psychological well-being
in this way.
The most obvious way in which Facebook socially
isolates us is the way in which we obsessively go
on Facebook on our smartphones. In social
situations, even with our closest friends and family
members, we almost instinctively reach for our
smartphone to check the latest updates on
Facebook. Our attention is then glued to this
screen, feeding us this cyber-reality and everything
else around us becomes non-existent. Im no
exception to this. But I still recognise how
unnatural and depressing it is when a group of
people are sitting in a room or at a restaurant or at
an event, and all are silently peering into the lives
of people they barely know. Conversation and
social skills are being eroded by social media and
smartphones. This increase in social isolation is
psychologically harmful to us being the social
species that we are and it can result in us
becoming more depressed.

Facebook can give us instant gratification through

self-disclosure and checking notifications, but the
social isolation that results can make us depressed
in the long-term. There is some evidence that links
Facebook use to low life satisfaction. A study by
Ethan Kross et al. (2013) published in PLS One found
that the more that people used Facebook, the
worse their subjective well-being was. Interacting
with other people directly (face-to-face or by
phone) was not linked to these negative subjective
feelings. Another study by researchers from two German
universities suggests that Facebook-related
depression is caused by envy. The authors argue
that Facebook is an engine for creating envy on an
unprecedented scale.

Facebook creates a false picture of reality in which

users are bombarded by photos and updates which
give them the impression that everyone is living a
much better life than they are. Not many people
share photos or information which puts their life in
a negative light. Facebook stirs up such an intense
feeling of envy, the researchers argue, that it can
negatively affect the life satisfaction of users;
especially passive users. People who dont use
Facebook that often, except to read the posts and
view the photos of others, are likely to become
more envious, frustrated and have lower self
esteem than more involved users. Most envied
were the holiday photos that people post, followed
by social interactions, such as a friend getting
more birthday wishes than you did. This is different
from normal face-to-face relations, where envy
results from the success, talents and possessions
of others. On Facebook, envy can proliferate much
more easily and can make people feel much worse
about their own lives. In conclusion, Facebook, like
all technological advances, has benefits and risks;
it just depends on how we use it.

Definition of Conceptual Framework

A conceptual framework represents the researchers synthesis of literature on how to
explain a phenomenon. It maps out the actions required in the course of the study given
his previous knowledge of other researchers point of view and his observations on the
subject of research.

In other words, the conceptual framework is the researchers understanding of how the
particular variables in his study connect with each other. Thus, it identifies the
variables required in the research investigation. It is the researchers map in pursuing
the investigation.

As McGaghie et al. (2001) put it: The conceptual framework sets the stage for the
presentation of the particular research question that drives the investigation being
reported based on the problem statement. The problem statement of a thesis presents
the context and the issues that caused the researcher to conduct the study.

The conceptual framework lies within a much broader framework called theoretical
framework. The latter draws support from time-tested theories that embody the findings
of many researchers on why and how a particular phenomenon occurs.

Step by Step Guide on How to Make the Conceptual

Framework
Before you prepare your conceptual framework, you need to do the following things:

1. Choose your topic. Decide on what will be your research topic. The topic
should be within your field of specialization.
2. Do a literature review. Review relevant and updated research on the
theme that you decide to work on after scrutiny of the issue at hand. Preferably
use peer-reviewed and well-known scientific journals as these are reliable sources
of information.
3. Isolate the important variables. Identify the specific variables described
in the literature and figure out how these are related. Some abstracts contain the
variables and the salient findings thus may serve the purpose. If these are not
available, find the research papers summary. If the variables are not explicit in
the summary, get back to the methodology or the results and discussion section
 and quickly identify the variables of the study and the significant findings.
Read the TSPU Technique on how to skim efficiently articles and get to the
important points without much fuss.
4. Generate the conceptual framework. Build your conceptual framework
using your mix of the variables from the scientific articles you have read. Your
problem statement serves as a reference in constructing the conceptual
framework. In effect, your study will attempt to answer a question that other
researchers have not explained yet. Your research should address a knowledge
gap.

Example of a Conceptual Framework

Statement number 5 introduced in an earlier post titled How to Write a Thesis
Statement will serve as the basis of the illustrated conceptual framework in the
following examples.

Thesis statement: Chronic exposure to blue light from LED screens (of computer
monitors and television) deplete melatonin levels thus reduce the number of sleeping
hours among middle-aged adults.

The study claims that blue light from the light emitting diodes (LED) inhibit the
production of melatonin, a hormone that regulates sleep and wake cycles. Those
affected experience insomnia; they sleep less than required (usually less than six
hours), and this happens when they spend too much time working on their laptops or
viewing the television at night.

Fig
. 1 The research paradigm illustrating the researchers conceptual framework.
Notice that the variables of the study are explicit in the paradigm presented in Figure 1.
In the illustration, the two variables are 1) number of hours devoted in front of the
computer, and 2) number of hours slept at night. The former is the independent variable
while the latter is the dependent variable. Both of these variables are easy to measure.
It is just counting the number of hours spent in front of the computer and the number of
hours slept by the subjects of the study.

Assuming that other things are constant during the performance of the study, it will be
possible to relate these two variables and confirm that indeed, blue light emanated from
computer screens can affect ones sleeping patterns. (Please read the article titled Do
you know that the computer can disturb your sleeping patterns? to find out
more about this phenomenon) A correlation analysis will show whether the relationship
is significant or not.

e-Book on Conceptual Framework Development

Due to the popularity of this article, I wrote an e-Book designed to suit the needs of
beginning researchers. This e-Book answers the many questions and comments
regarding the preparation of the conceptual framework. I provide five practical examples
based on existing literature to demonstrate the procedure.