Gossiping with friends on Facebook only makes you glum not happy: Scientist claims

It is used by millions of people to stay in touch with friends and family.

But far from brightening their day, Facebook could be making its users more unhappy.

Scientists have found the more time individuals spend on the social networking site, the worse they subsequently feel.

More than one in three Britons use Facebook every day, with 24 million logging on to share their latest goings on.

‘On the surface, Facebook provides an invaluable resource for fulfilling the basic human need for social connection,’ said lead researchers Dr Ethan Kross, a psychologist at the University of Michigan.

‘But rather than enhance well-being, we found that Facebook use predicts the opposite result - it undermines it.’ Research carried out earlier this year at the University of Chester suggested Facebook friends are no substitute for the real thing.

It found people are happier and laugh 50 per cent more when talking face-to-face with friends or via webcam than when they use social networking sites.

And the current study backed these findings, with participants who had direct interactions with other people feeling better over time.

In contrast, the more individuals used Facebook during the period, the greater the reduction in their life satisfaction levels.

‘This is a result of critical importance because it goes to the very heart of the influence that social networks may have on people’s lives,’ said co-author John Jonides, a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Michigan.

Go out and have a life. Stop hiding in front of a computer talking to complete strangers and thinking you have one. Go out and be you, have fun.