A University of Queensland study has revealed ditching the social media network can lower stress levels in just five days.
The findings come at a difficult time for Facebook after it admitted that the personal information of up to 87 million users may have been improperly shared with political consultancy Cambridge Analytica, up from a previous news media estimate of more than 50 million.
This week Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg refused to step down when he addressed the scandal in an hour-long press conference, describing the data breach as a "huge mistake".
This week Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg refused to step down when he addressed the scandal in an hour-long press conference, describing the data breach as a "huge mistake".
The Queensland University study's research team, led by Dr Eric Vanman, recruited 138 active Facebook users and asked half the group to abstain from Facebook activity for five days.
Researchers then tested their levels of stress hormone, cortisol, before and after and found it didn't take long for stress levels to drop.
But despite the evidence, most of the people taking part in the study said they were looking for getting back to the social media platform.
"However, while participants in our study showed an improvement in physiological stress by giving up Facebook, they also reported lower feelings of well-being," Dr Vanman said.
“People said they felt more unsatisfied with their life, and were looking forward to resuming their Facebook activity.
Dr Vanman said the participants' "own ratings of their stress did not change - perhaps because they weren't aware their stress had gone down".
“They felt less content with their lives - from the resulting social disconnection of being cut-off from their Facebook friends.