Individuals attribute more negative effects of Facebook to others than themselves in respect to employment, privacy, and personal relationships

When participants in a recent study were asked about personal relationships, employment opportunities, and privacy, they claimed fewer negative consequences in their own lives from Facebook, but agreed that negative impacts due to Facebook exist among others.

This concept, known as the third party effect, does exist. There was, however, one exception.

Individuals did not perceive Facebook to have a negative impact on their closest friends' personal relationships. This makes sense and can be explained by a simple fact. If a person believes his or her Facebook use does not impact their own personal life, then their closest friends should also not bear this adverse effect.

Overall, the findings in this experiment are consistent with previous theories, such as the social distance corollary, which is the belief that others are more susceptible to the negative impacts of media than themselves.

This study gathered information by employing surveys in Northeastern U.S. universities

Researchers administered 15-minute surveys across 20 classrooms with a total of 357 participants. Each subject was asked demographic information such as race, age, class standing, grade point average, how much time they spend on Facebook each day, degree of privacy settings, and number of Facebook friends.

Participants were then asked to estimate the negative effects of Facebook employment, personal relationships, and privacy in four different groups-- closest friends, younger people, people in their Facebook network, and Facebook users in general. Participants rated these responses based on a five-point scale, with 1 as having no negative effect to 5 as having the strongest negative effect.

Limitations to this study do exist. Looking to the pie chart on the right, it is important to note that the majority of the participants in this study were white, composing 91.6% of the survey population. Additionally, all participants were close in age, as they were all undergraduate students. This small sample is quite unrepresentative of the Facebook user population, as all age groups are on Facebook, as well as many other ethnicities. Future research should focus on these potential differences that may affect the results.

The third party effect does not predict strong Facebook regulations

Past research shows that the third party effect influences an individual's willingness to support media regulation in an attempt to protect others from the negative influences of media. As discussed above, the third party effect is the phenomenon when a person believes the negative influences of media does not impact them, but has the potential to harm others. This study gathered inconclusive results about this. The researchers attributed this difference to the fact that most people are likely to view Facebook as a "nonharmful" social media site.

Undergraduate students at the University of Maryland reveal the same results as those of this study 


In order to examine and apply these results to our own world, 60 undergraduate students at the University of Maryland partook in an online survey through Qualtrics. Demographic information, such as gender, as well as the frequency of Facebook use was measured. Participants were asked to answer each question honestly, and were informed that the survey would be anonymous.


A total of 6 questions were asked in this survey. The first three questions pertained to the general population of Facebook users-- "In general, Facebook can negatively impact personal relationships," "Facebook can ultimately impact and negatively affect employment," and "Lastly, Facebook can negatively impact a person's privacy." On a separate page, three questions related to personal experiences were asked--"Facebook has negatively impacted my personal relationships," "I am scared of what future employers will think of my Facebook page," and "I oftentimes feel unsafe that people have access to my personal information." Subjects were given a five-point Likert scale ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree.

Results were surprisingly consistent with the aforementioned study. In general, a vast majority of people viewed negative effects of Facebook to affect others, but not themselves. It is important to note that the majority of the participants were female, compromising 67% of the total sample. One surprising finding was that 60% of participants admitted to checking Facebook more than 8 times a day. Out of the 60 people who took the survey, only 2 people did not have a Facebook.

Limitations to this study also exist. Further statistical tests, such as t-tests, should be implemented to see if a significant difference persists. Without statistics, results can oftentimes be misleading and inconclusive. In addition, it is crucial to examine other factors that may attribute to the third party effect, such as heightened ego and a sense of superiority. Future research should also expand the study to account for more differences. The majority of the population uses Facebook, and it is quintessential to obtain a more representative sample.