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The mere sight of the Facebook logo is enough to bring about a pleasant feeling in social media users.

A new Michigan State University study explained why using social media is a hard habit to break for many people.

Using social media sites makes people feel good, Allison Eden, an assistant professor at the Michigan State University's Department of Communications, said.

Together with researchers from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and Radboud University Nijmegen in The Netherlands, Eden and her team made two studies did a study among frequent users of Facebook and less frequent users of the most popular social media site.

Pleasurable response

Their study found that among frequent Facebook users, just being briefly exposed to an image from Facebook, such as the logo or a screenshot, is enough to trigger a pleasurable response that leads to social media cravings, Science Daily reported.

The participants were shown a Facebook-related cue or photo followed by a Chinese symbol.

The respondents were then asked to to state if the image shown was pleasant or unpleasant.

In the second test, the respondents' cravings to use Facebook was measured.

Since the use of Facebook was equated with guilt, their failure to regulate their use of Facebook made them feel bad.

The feeling of guilt changed when the Facebook logo from a mobile phone home screen was removed.

The study made Eden conclude: "Media, including social media, is one of the most commonly failed goals to regulate ...People try to regulate themselves and they really have difficulty with it." 

Distorted reality

However, in spite of the pleasurable feeling that comes with using social media, a study led by Ethan Kross, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, showed that favorite social media sites could make people feel worse about life. 

Edward Corty, a medical student at the Florida State University College of Medicine, explained that social media makes fear of missing out pretty hard for users.

Kross added there are instances when social media makes people feel worse about life like when scrolling through their news feed, while checking what goes on in the life of other people, feelings of jealousy emerge, WCTV reported.

The feelings of jealousy, however, could be unnecesary because according to studies, what some people post on social media is padded.

Many social media users portray themselves in ways that glorify the positives. "When you're exposed to that kind of information, it can make you feel bad," Kross explained. 

However, some Facebook users have discovered that to avoid the fear of missing out, they just have to use their willpower and activate the "do not disturb" button when they need to concentrate on other tasks.

Misinformation about science articles

Meanwhile, a nationwide survey found that posting and sharing information on social media could help disseminate misinformation that is not necessarily true or correct.

In particular, Independent cited antimicrobial resistance (AMR), which indirectly contributes to the misuse of antibiotics.Another area of misinformation, when posted on social media, are political rumors, which people tend to believe and share with others.

In the case of AMR, it does not end with misinformation because the misuse of AMR makes it harder for medical experts to treat ailments and could give rise to superbugs.

Tim Caufield, a law and public health professor at the University of Alberta in Canada called it "scienceploitation," Independent reported.

It is when media practitioners report on a legitimate science field but simplifies it inaccurrately for the general public.

Most "scienceplotation" articles are clickbait stories.The Independent cited Huffington Post for "scienceploitation" articles, such as when it equated a glass of red wine to an hour of work at the gym.

The website also cited viral articles on losing weight by eating chocolates.Other areas include unproven therapies passed off unchallenged as real.

An example is the stem cell treatment undergone by Gordie Howe, a professional hockey player, in Mexico after he suffered a stroke.

Almost 80 percent of tweets shared the alleged health improvement of Howe, while only three or 2,783 tweets cited the lack of scientific evidence to support that the stem cell treatment of Howe -- whoeventually died -- lacked FDA approval. 

Finally, the survey cited exposure of netizens to uncivil comments on social media, which further divides users on certain issues, especially those that are science-related.

Another study found a link between politeness and civility with users posting their comments on social mdia through mobile devices.

The survey noted that despite social media being able to transform communiction, it is, nevertheless, a double-edged sword that has a harmful side.