Jack Lowe, writing for Huh:

Researchers at the Happiness Research Institute in Copenhagen (yep, that does exist) decided to find out. They took a group of 1,095 Facebook users and split them into two groups. The first group were allowed to continue using the social network on a daily basis, while the other group were forced to go completely cold turkey, staying off the site for the duration of the experiment.

The results were incredibly revealing – after just 7 days 88% of the group that left Facebook said they felt “happy” as opposed to 81% in the group still using the site. They also felt less angry, less lonely, less depressed, more decisive, more enthusiastic, and enjoyed their lives more. Ditching Facebook also appeared to reduce stress levels by as much as 55%. They’re some pretty strong results…

One of the main reasons I deleted my Facebook account seven or eight years ago was because browsing the site always left me depressed. I was just aimlessly scrolling through a news feed filled with pictures and posts from people that were doing more interesting things than I was. The site encourages users to distill their lives into a series of highlights and, as someone who often feels that their life’s highlights are few and far between, that was painfully depressing.