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A new study suggests that the more friends you have on Facebook, the more likely you are to feel stressed out by Facebook.

In a study from Edinburgh Napier University, psychologist quizzed around 200 students on their use of Facebook and concludes that, “for a significant number of users, the negative effects of Facebook outweigh the benefits of staying in touch with friends and family.”

Dr. Kathy Charles, who led the study points out a number of paradoxes that  resulted from the study.

“For instance, although there is great pressure to be on Facebook there is also considerable ambivalence amongst users about its benefits,” said Dr Charles.

“Our data also suggests that there is a significant minority of users who experience considerable Facebook-related anxiety, with only very modest or tenuous rewards.

“And we found it was actually those with the most contacts, those who had invested the most time in the site, who were the ones most likely to be stressed.”

Certain actions that Facebook users deal with regularly can also cause psychological strain. Rejecting friend request caused 32 per cent of the respondent to feel guilty. Maybe that is why, the survey shows that 63 per cent said they delay replying to friend request and 10 per cent admitted to dislike receiving friend request. While 12 per cent of the respondents who said that Facebook in general makes them feel anxious had an average of 117 friends, the remaining 88 per cent had an average of 75 friends.

“But many also told us they were anxious about withdrawing from the site for fear of missing important social information or offending contacts. Like gambling, Facebook keeps users in a neurotic limbo, not knowing whether they should hang on in there just in case they miss out on something good,” She added.

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