Facebook is terrible. But Facebook is, at the same time, wonderful. We love it, we hate it. We love to hate it, hate to love it, etc. It is our best friend. It is our worst enemy. Facebook may be friending the world, in other words, but it is also frenemy-ing us, one click at a time. This, according to new research from the Skype-like service Rebtel, which regularly surveys its users about their habits. The company recently queried U.S. users aged 18 and older, garnering responses from 1,632 mobile device owners. Among its questions: What social networking sites cause you the most stress? Which have the most negative effect on your mood? Which have the most positive?
The survey's major finding was unsurprising: Most social networks seem to have very little negative effect on those users' overall moods or stress levels. However: Of the users who did implicate social networks in stress and general mood changes, the overwhelming majority of them pointed their collective fingers at one network in particular: Facebook. Asked "what social network causes you the most stress?," 18.4 percent of Android users and 21.4 percent of iPhone users replied, "Facebook." By comparison, the next-most-named network, Twitter, was called out by only 5.9 percent of Android users and 4.4 percent of iPhone -- and the next-most-named, LinkedIn, clocked in with 4.0 percent and 3.2 percent of users, respectively.
