Many people have gone off Facebook because they're tired of seeing useless rants and stereotypical messages on their friends' feeds. Turns out, Facebook can actually be depressing.
But don't fret, there's an alternative that actually makes people happy: Snapchat! Complex reports:
"A study by the University of Michigan looked at how 154 college students used their smartphones and found that, next to IRL hangs, the most 'rewarding' communication happened through Snapchat. 'On the surface, many people view Snapchat as the 'sexting app,' ' Joseph Bayer, the study's lead author said in a statement. 'But instead, we found that Snapchat is typically being used to communicate spontaneously with close friends in a new and often more enjoyable way.
"According to Tech Insider, the study was the first of its kind, asking questions like, 'How pleasant or unpleasant was your most recent interaction?' and 'How close are you to that person?' Communications on Snapchat were 'associated with more positive emotions than Facebook and other social technologies,' according to the study. Snapchat is better than Facebook, at least to the study participants, because it is 'self-presentational.' This means that its ephemeral nature - AKA the idea that the snaps are only viewable for a small amount of time - is key to allowing users to prevent smaller, more personal moments to everyone else."
Bayer explains: "Since Facebook has become a space for sharing crafted by big moments such as babies, graduations and birthdays, Snapchat seems to provide users with a distinct space for sharing the small moments."
Not only that, but the University of Houston also conducted a study earlier this year. It was found that the amount of time users spend on Facebook can actually be connected to depressive symptoms.
In addition, Facebook also did a study last year - which received a lot of public backlash because "the News Feed was tweaked to show more negative posts."
Hopefully more people get move on to Snapchat and leave all the negativity on Facebook.
