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Tech Talk: Facebook Celebrates its 10th BirthdayIBTimes UK

Mark Zuckerberg's character played by Jesse Eisenberg in 2010's The Social Network described Facebook as the online equivalent of college students' social lives.

"People wanna go on the internet and check out their friends, so why not build a website that offers that? Friends, pictures, profiles...I'm talking about taking the entire social experience of college and putting it online."

But as Facebook celebrates its 10th birthday, the website which grew from a Harvard dorm room to become a multi-billion dollar social superpower could be as damaging as it is useful, as psychologists find the social transition from offline to online is far from simple.

Addicted to Facebook

Despite its young age, research has already been undertaken into the effects of being addicted to Facebook, and how a never-ending stream of news from the lives of friends can have a detrimental impact on our sense of well-being.

Daria Kuss of Birmingham City University told IBTimes UK: "Depressive symptoms of excessive Facebook use are likely to relate to the overemphasis on weak ties between individuals which are propagated online and the substitution of real life friendships by online friendships."

Kuss blames the often "superficial" status of many Facebook friends - who can be acquired at the click of a mouse and never actually interacted with - for problems with users' real-life relationships.

"Particularly for young and/or socially inexperienced individuals these online friendships may become too important, at the expense of deeper and stronger ties with friends in real life. Participating in social networking sites may therefore result in feeling 'alone together' amidst 'friends'."

Lurking rather than interacting

Here is the original post:
How the Billion-Member Social Network is Making Us Lonely