Your friends’ problems on social media generate stress that is contagious. Indeed, reading throughout the day on Twitter, Facebook or other social networks the difficulties and problems of your loved ones would cause compassion and promote a form of discomfort.
Researchers from the Pew Research Center and Rutgers University (USA) studied 1,801 American adults, their digital habits and their level of stress. They found that followers of Twitter, Facebook were more stressed than others. At issue, compassion and stressgenerated by the problems of relatives.
“Internet users are stressed, not because they use social networks, but because they are aware of events that can affect the lives of other people. This discovery of the cost of compassion corroborates the fact that stress can be contagious”, explains Keith Hampton, one of the authors of the study carried out by the Pew Research Center and Rutgers University.
Women are more stressed than men
According to the results of this study, there is no difference, from a statistical point of view, between the stress level of a man who uses social networks, a mobile phone or the Internet. But the stress is particularly contagious on Facebook, the social network where the most personal information is shared. And women seem to be more affected than men.
A woman with an average-sized network of Facebook friends becomes aware of 13% more stressful events in the lives of her social network friends, compared to 8% among men.
“The cost of compassion is particularly felt by women and it results from two facts about stress in them: women show higher levels of stress to begin with. They are also more aware of stressful events in the lives of their friends or family,” the researchers explain.
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