Being popular on Facebook is stressful

Technolog - Being popular on Facebook is stressful

By Athima Chansanchai

Oh, the pitfalls of popularity.

The more Facebook friends you have, the more likely you are to be stressed out, a new study finds. While it may boost the human ego to know their popularity has touched so many lives, it also induces a whole new array of anxiety specific to Facebook. For instance, you're more likely to worry about periodic purging of said friends, and more apt to succumb to the constant pressure of being so darn witty and charming in status updates.

'It's like being a mini news channel about yourself. The more people you have the more you feel there is an audience there,' Dr. Kathy Charles, who led the study at Scotland's Edinburgh Napier University, told BBC News. 'You are almost a mini celebrity and the bigger the audience the more pressure you feel to produce something about yourself.'

Ain't that the truth? Why, this morning, I'm already sweating, trying to figure out how to start the day with the right status update. Because, God forbid, what if I don't give my eager masses something to chew on for the rest of the morning? Their day will be shot, as will mine.

Charles — whose team solicited data from about 200 students through focus groups, an online survey of 175 people as well as interviews — found that one in 10 said that Facebook 'made them feel anxious' and more than three in 10 said 'they felt guilty about rejecting friend requests.'

Popularity means new people are constantly trying to be your friends. Twelve percent of the students questioned said they disliked receiving friend requests, while almost two-thirds (63 percent) said they put friend requests in limbo by delaying responses.

- Sent using Google Toolbar