Facebook users risk psychological damage spying on ex lovers

As many as half of Facebook users are risking psychological damage from using the site to spy on ex lovers, according to new research.

Two of the most cited reasons for accessing Facebook are to keep in touch with others and to surreptitiously monitor them - with between a third and half of users using it to check up on ex-partners.

With close to a billion users, it means hundreds of millions may be finding it more difficult to get over a broken romance.

Psychologist Dr Tara Marshall said in the past, such spying and keeping tabs with what your ex was up to was challenging.

You could try and pry information from his or her friends, telephone, or drop by their place, but it was usually unlikely you would turn up much useful information.

This made it easy for people to distance themselves from the relationship and move on - an emotionally healthy breakup.

But as long as you remain 'friends' with your ex on Facebook, they are now able to keep up with everything you are doing.

While satisfying a certain curiosity factor, it seems likely that it would make it far more difficult to actually emotionally distance yourself from your past relationship.

In a survey of 464 participants, most of whom were undergraduate students, she found people who remain Facebook friends with an ex-partner will experience poorer breakup adjustment and personal growth relative to those who do not.

The findings suggest continued online exposure to an ex-romantic partner may inhibit post-breakup recovery.

Notably, frequent monitoring of an ex-partner's Facebook page and list of friends was associated with greater distress.

Dr Brenda Wiederhold, editor of Cyberpsychology, Behaviour and Social Networking which published the research, added: "This study sees again virtual life mirroring real life.

"Just as real life contact with ex-partners may inhibit growth, healing, and well-being, so may virtual contact."

根據(jù)一項(xiàng)最新研究，有多達(dá)半數(shù)的Facebook用戶使用該網(wǎng)站查看前情人的消息，這可能導(dǎo)致使用者的心理受創(chuàng)。

用戶使用Facebook網(wǎng)站的兩大原因是與他人保持聯(lián)系與暗中關(guān)注他們，其中有三分之一到一半的用戶登錄Facebook查看前情人的消息。

Facebook網(wǎng)站有近十億用戶，這意味著有億萬(wàn)用戶因此更難度過(guò)情傷。

心理學(xué)家塔拉-馬歇爾博士說(shuō)，過(guò)去，像是暗中監(jiān)視或者密切注意前情人這種事很難辦到。

過(guò)去，你可以試著通過(guò)你或者前情人的朋友、電話，或者順便拜訪住處，探聽前情人的消息，不過(guò)通常得不到太多有用信息。

這樣人們更容易走出感情，開始新生活，是情感健康的分手方式。

不過(guò)，只要你與前情人還是Facebook“好友”，他們現(xiàn)在就能了解到你的動(dòng)態(tài)。

這雖然滿足了一些好奇心，實(shí)際上卻可能讓人更難走出過(guò)往戀情。

馬歇爾在調(diào)查中發(fā)現(xiàn)，與前情人還是Facebook好友的受訪者，其分手后的調(diào)整過(guò)程與個(gè)人成長(zhǎng)， 不如不保持好友關(guān)系的受訪者順利。共有464名受訪者參與調(diào)查，其中多數(shù)是大學(xué)生。

研究結(jié)果顯示，在網(wǎng)上持續(xù)接觸前任的信息可能有阻分手后的恢復(fù)。

值得一提的是，頻繁關(guān)注前情人的Facebook主頁(yè)和好友名單可能使人更加抑郁。

《網(wǎng)絡(luò)心里學(xué)、行為與社交媒體》雜志的編輯布倫達(dá)-維德霍爾德補(bǔ)充說(shuō)：“從研究可以看出，虛擬生活可以影射現(xiàn)實(shí)。”

“正如同與前任在現(xiàn)實(shí)生活中的接觸會(huì)阻礙個(gè)人成長(zhǎng)、痊愈，甚至讓自己無(wú)法過(guò)得更好，網(wǎng)絡(luò)上的接觸也是一樣。”

Vocabulary:

pry: 刺探