At beholde et antal venner på Facebook og Instagram kan være skadeligt for dit helbred

Har du nogensinde følt, at dine jævnaldrende har flere venner end dig?

Disse dage, med fremkomsten af ​​sociale medier apps som Facebook og Instagram, det er nemmere end nogensinde før at benchmarke antallet af "venner" du har i forhold til dine jævnaldrende.

Så, hvis du tænker på, hvordan dine sociale netværk er sammenlignet med andres, vores seneste forskning, udgivet i Personality &Social Psychology Bulletin, tyder på, at du langt fra er alene. Desuden, vi fandt ud af, at det kan være skadeligt for dit helbred at tro, at dine jævnaldrende har flere venner, end du gør - selv om det påviselig er falsk.

Det er menneskeligt at sammenligne

Årtiers forskning i psykologi tyder på, at sociale sammenligninger er en grundlæggende menneskelig tendens. Vi sammenligner os selv med andre for at vurdere og forstå vores evner, vores sociale status og endda vores egne følelser.

Når man laver sociale sammenligninger, folk ser generelt sig selv komme i top – eller i det mindste over gennemsnittet. Det er, de er ofte oversikre på deres evner, vurderer sig selv over gennemsnittet i sundhed, tiltrækningskraft og intelligens.

Endnu, der er mindst ét ​​domæne, hvor folk har en tendens til at tro, at de har det værre end deres jævnaldrende:følelsesmæssige oplevelser.

Tidligere forskning udført af en af ​​vores kolleger, Alex Jordan på Harvard Medical School, fandt ud af, at folk undervurderer, hvor ofte deres jævnaldrende oplever negative følelser, som depression eller stress, og overvurderer, hvor ofte de oplever positive, som lykke, stolthed og håb.

En årsag til sidstnævnte tendens er, at folk også generelt overvurderer, hvor socialt forbundne andre er. Trods alt, at være socialt forbundet er en af ​​de vigtigste forudsigere for lykke. Det er derfor vigtigt at forstå, om overbevisninger om at gøre det værre end vores jævnaldrende omfatter socialt tilhørsforhold og at forstå, hvordan disse overbevisninger opstår.

Fremkomsten af ​​sociale medier

Sociale medier gør det meget sværere at undgå at sammenligne vores egen forbindelse med vores jævnaldrende.

Siden starten af ​​Facebook i 2004, mere end en milliard mennesker har oprettet Facebook-konti, og i dag, dens hjemmeside er den mest besøgte i verden. Amerikanerne bruger omkring 56 milliarder minutter på Facebook hver måned.

Mens noget af denne tid bruges på aktivt at sende beskeder til andre mennesker, den typiske bruger bruger størstedelen af ​​sin tid på Facebook til at observere andre mennesker uden at skrive - nogle gange kaldet "lurer". Sagt anderledes, folk bruger det meste af deres tid på sociale medier på at samle information om deres jævnaldrendes liv.

Og, sociale medier-indlæg er overvejende fokuseret på at projicere de mest positive versioner af os selv. I betragtning af Twitters popularitet, Instagram, Snapchat og LinkedIn, det er næsten umuligt at undgå at lære om vores kammeraters præstationer. Som resultat, det er også næsten umuligt at undgå at bruge disse oplysninger som et benchmark for at sammenligne vores liv med vores jævnaldrende.

Vi tror på, at andre har flere venner

At undersøge de overbevisninger, som folk har om deres jævnaldrendes sociale liv, og hvordan de påvirker trivsel, vi undersøgte førsteårsstuderende under deres overgang til universitetslivet på University of British Columbia, en stor offentlig institution i Vancouver, Canada.

På tværs af to lignende undersøgelser med i alt 1, 488 deltagere, vi stillede to centrale spørgsmål:Hvor mange venner har du på universitetet? Og hvor mange venner tror du, andre førsteårsstuderende har? Vi bad dem også om at estimere den procentdel af tid, som både dem selv og deres jævnaldrende havde brugt på at socialisere med nye venner på universitetet i de sidste syv dage.

En overraskende del af eleverne mente, at deres kammerater havde flere venner og brugte mere tid på socialt samvær, end de selv havde.

I vores første undersøgelse, 48 procent af førsteårsstuderende troede, at deres jævnaldrende havde flere venner, whereas only 31 percent believed the reverse.

In our second study, the gap was even more pronounced:More than twice as many students believed that other first-years had more friends than they did rather than the other way around – 55 percent to 26 percent. Students also believed that their peers spent 24 percent of their time socializing with new friends at university as compared with the 20 percent for their personal estimate.

How this undermines happiness

In our second study, students also reported on their happiness and loneliness. To assess happiness and loneliness, students indicated their agreement with statements like "the conditions of my life are excellent" and "I see myself as a loner, " respectively.

Students who believed that their peers were doing better socially reported lower levels of life satisfaction and greater loneliness than students who thought that they had more friends.

Vigtigt, these results were stable even after we accounted for the number of friends that students had. Med andre ord, even when students had an above-average number of friends, thinking their peers had more friends than they did undermined their well-being.

So why do we think this way?

Our research suggests that the public nature of social activities can lead people to think that their peers are doing better socially than they are.

Since social activities like eating or studying with friends often happen in public where they are easily seen, students likely overestimate how often these activities occur in their peers' lives.

Social media also plays a role. In research that we published earlier this year, first-year students were more likely to feel like they didn't belong at university after viewing highly social photos of their peers on Facebook.

We have not yet collected data to see how common these feelings and beliefs are outside of college. Imidlertid, given how common feelings of loneliness are when people move to a new city or start a new job, it is possible that these social misperceptions could occur anytime people move to a new social environment.

A silver lining

Our study found evidence that these perceptions can shift over time. When we followed up with a subset of students and asked them identical questions four to five months later, we observed two key findings:

Later in the academic year, fewer students believed that other students had more friends than they did. These findings suggest that the tendency to see others as more social can change over time, potentially as people get to know their peers better and realize that those peers do not actually have more friends than they do.

We also found evidence that these beliefs – in moderation – might not be uniformly bad. Students who initially believed that other students had a few more friends than they did had themselves made more friends when we checked in with them down the road. This suggests that people who feel slightly, but not hopelessly, behind their peers might be more motivated to seek out new friendships. After making more friends, people are less likely to believe that others have more friends than they do.

If you have ever felt like everyone else is more connected than you are, there is a good chance you are not alone. Endnu, if you use these feelings as motivation to reach out to a new colleague or grab lunch with a friend you haven't seen in a while, this belief doesn't always have to undermine happiness. Faktisk, it could help you become more connected.

Denne artikel blev oprindeligt publiceret på The Conversation. Læs den originale artikel.