Facebook may make introverts feel left out: Study

Melbourne: Facebook may be bad for introverts as they tend to feel more excluded from the activities of their friends on the social networking site, a new study has found.

The study, led by Samantha Stronge, doctoral student of Auckland University in New Zealand, also found that extroverts feel just as included in their friend groups whether they are on Facebook or not, and simply use Facebook as an extension of their already busy social lives.

"Extroverts post more status updates and send more messages to people," Stronge said.

"For introverts, those who did have a Facebook profile had lower belonging than those who didn't, because they didn't use it actively enough," she said.

Previous studies have pointed to a "poor get poorer" effect, where people who already feel relatively excluded from society feel even more excluded after joining Facebook, 'New Zealand Herald' reported.

The study was part of the NZ Attitudes and Values Study of 6428 New Zealanders aged 18 and over in 2011. At the time only 49 per cent of men in the sample, but 69 per cent of women, had joined Facebook.

Their extroversion was measured by how much they agreed or disagreed with statements such as "I am the life of the party" (extroverted) and "I don't talk a lot" (introverted).

Their belongingness was measured by three statements: "I know that people in my life accept and value me," "I know that people around me share my attitudes and beliefs," and "I feel like an outsider".

Having a Facebook page made those who already felt excluded feel only slightly more excluded than they already were, but the effect was still significant.

The study was published in the NZ Journal of Psychology.