If Cambridge Analytica didn't put you off Facebook forever, this might: a new study says that quitting the social media network can drastically lower your stress levels.
The Cambridge Analytica scandal — also known as the largest data leak in Facebook history — caused the social network to lose around a million daily users from the United States and Canada.
If you're not one of these users, and the thought of your personal data being used to manipulate voters is not enough to make you abandon the platform, perhaps this new study will change your mind.
Researchers at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia — led by Prof. Eric Vanman, who is a senior lecturer at the university's School of Psychology — wanted to investigate the impact of quitting Facebook on the users' stress levels and overall well-being.
The results, which have just been published in the Journal of Social Psychology, may convince you to #DeleteFacebook — if not in protest, then out of concern for your health.
Prof. Vanman sums up his findings, reporting, "Taking a Facebook break for just 5 days reduced a person's level of the stress hormone cortisol." Cortisol is known to soar when a person is stressed. In fact, the hormone is considered to be the key player in stress, regulating how our body responds to it.