Is Facebook Making Us Lonely? Study Shows 'Lurking' Affects Your Life Satisfaction

If you're feel a bit down this holiday season, maybe try logging off Facebook. A study by the University of Copenhagen found too much social media use, especially "lurking" — i.e. browsing through folks' lives without really connecting — is bad for your health, the BBC reported Thursday.

In a bit of news that might not shock a lot of us, it's apparently unhealthy to scroll through Facebook, comparing every detail of your life to the carefully curated public pages of an avalanche of exes, neighbors and family.

Luckily, there's an easy fix: get off Facebook for a bit. "It was demonstrated that taking a break from Facebook has positive effects on the two dimensions of well-being: our life satisfaction increases and our emotions become more positive," the study found. "Furthermore, it was demonstrated that these effects were significantly greater for heavy Facebook users, passive Facebook users, and users who tend to envy others on Facebook."

The researchers warned against spending too much time staring at a screen and passively scrolling through people's pages, which can cause envy and a worsening mood. Actually talking with people via social media seemingly nets more positive results, however, the researchers found.

The study, which carried out a one-week experiment with 1,095 participants, is far from the first study that documented social media's negative effects on our lives. A 2013 article in the New Yorker detailed a number of studies on the subject, which similarly noted that those who are using Facebook passively are likely to feel lonelier.

Some 70 percent of users check Facebook daily and just 9 percent of activities on the site involve actively communicating with others, according to Psychology Today. With that in mind, if you want to be full of cheer this Christmas, it might be best to log off social media. Or, if you simply must log on, use Facebook to connect with family and friends — maybe even wish the Joneses a happy holiday instead of scrolling through their photos, wishing you could keep up with them.