幾年前，F(xiàn)acebook的一組研究人員發(fā)現(xiàn)，用戶在不停瀏覽Facebook的動(dòng)態(tài)推送后自我感覺會(huì)更糟。于是他們決定做點(diǎn)什么。

他們研究了Facebook用戶使用社交網(wǎng)絡(luò)時(shí)的情緒反應(yīng)。相關(guān)成果推動(dòng)Facebook做出了迄今為止最大的改變之一：更多地向用戶顯示來自于朋友和家人的動(dòng)態(tài)，而不是企業(yè)動(dòng)態(tài)。

目的是為了增加用戶間的評(píng)論點(diǎn)贊等互動(dòng)。研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，人們互動(dòng)越多，感覺就越好。

這項(xiàng)變革的背后是Facebook鮮為人知的幸福團(tuán)隊(duì)，除此之外，他們還在多個(gè)領(lǐng)域里進(jìn)行了探索。Facebook在現(xiàn)代生活中幾乎無處不在，該團(tuán)隊(duì)的使命是減少Facebook可能對(duì)用戶造成的任何不良影響。

“我加入Facebook，是因?yàn)槲蚁胱屛业难芯吭谌粘?yīng)用中產(chǎn)生更多的影響。”幸福團(tuán)隊(duì)的研究經(jīng)理詹妮弗·瓜達(dá)尼奧說，“我希望我的學(xué)術(shù)研究能夠直接對(duì)人們產(chǎn)生影響，但似乎還未達(dá)到目標(biāo)。”

Facebook和其他社交媒體服務(wù)面臨著激烈的批評(píng)，稱它們強(qiáng)化了成癮行為，造成了用戶的自卑感和孤獨(dú)感等，這項(xiàng)研究變得越來越重要。此外，還有聲音批評(píng)社交媒體上的霸凌行為，加強(qiáng)監(jiān)管的呼聲不斷高漲。

該團(tuán)隊(duì)的目標(biāo)是解決科技行業(yè)日益嚴(yán)峻的難題——如何積極影響用戶的生活，眼前卻面臨重大挑戰(zhàn)。多年來，各項(xiàng)獨(dú)立研究均表明，使用Facebook會(huì)增加抑郁，讓用戶對(duì)自己的生活更不滿意。

今年早些時(shí)候，外部研究人員的一項(xiàng)研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，在停用Facebook賬戶后，人們更快樂、更滿足，焦慮和抑郁也減少了。這與Facebook的首席執(zhí)行官馬克·扎克伯格的說法形成了鮮明對(duì)比，他經(jīng)常吹噓Facebook是連接世界的關(guān)鍵工具。

“研究明確表明，確實(shí)存在問題。”斯坦福大學(xué)的教授馬修·根茨科說，他與其他三位教授共同開展了這項(xiàng)研究。

同樣，耶魯大學(xué)和加州大學(xué)圣迭戈分校的研究人員2017年在《美國流行病學(xué)雜志》（American Journal of Epidemiology）上發(fā)表的一項(xiàng)研究表明，用戶對(duì)Facebook的使用越多，心理健康和個(gè)人滿意度就越差。

雖然這些批評(píng)聽起來很刺耳，但Facebook的研究人員表示，他們能夠理解。

“批評(píng)者和我們一樣，都十分關(guān)注人們的幸福感。”主攻Facebook社會(huì)科學(xué)研究的研究科學(xué)家莫伊拉·伯克說，“我們追求的是同樣的東西。”

除了推動(dòng)Facebook去年改變了推送動(dòng)態(tài)的算法，該小組還助力Facebook開發(fā)了其他新功能，其中一項(xiàng)是為用戶設(shè)立專門頁面紀(jì)念所愛之人，另一個(gè)允許用戶暫時(shí)隱藏特定好友的帖子,這樣他們就無需看到前任的更新，諸如此類。

該團(tuán)隊(duì)還在探索，如何讓Facebook幫助最近搬到某一個(gè)新城市的人結(jié)識(shí)新朋友，探索新社區(qū)。研究人員還在尋找有效的方法，避免用戶在和朋友們經(jīng)常發(fā)布的理想生活——滿面笑容的嬰兒、充滿異域風(fēng)情的假期——進(jìn)行比較后，自我感覺更糟。

該團(tuán)隊(duì)向Facebook管理層提出的任何建議都只不過是建議。后者對(duì)采取什么措施擁有最終決定權(quán)。

雪城大學(xué)研究社交媒體內(nèi)容監(jiān)管問題的助理教授詹妮弗·格里吉爾表示，這就是問題所在。仇恨言論、暴力內(nèi)容和騷擾如此普遍，F(xiàn)acebook已經(jīng)跟不上了。雖然用戶可能會(huì)抱怨，但沒有任何規(guī)定要求Facebook做出改變，解決這些問題或其他任何問題。

“他們都是公司，對(duì)股東和利潤負(fù)責(zé)。”格里吉爾說，“他們說想幫助我們，說他們正在采取恰當(dāng)措施保護(hù)我們，但他們沒有做到，也沒有足夠的資源做到。”

格里吉爾說，F(xiàn)acebook內(nèi)部研究存在的問題可以歸結(jié)為：“只要馬克·扎克伯格還是公司的大股東，就沒有什么能夠真正獨(dú)立。”

幸福小組希望通過將學(xué)術(shù)標(biāo)準(zhǔn)應(yīng)用到工作中來改變?nèi)藗兊倪@種觀點(diǎn)，比如通過在權(quán)威的同行評(píng)審期刊上發(fā)表論文。最終，研究人員表示，他們正以他們知道的唯一方式解決Facebook的問題：學(xué)術(shù)渠道。

該研究小組的成立大致可以追溯到2009年，當(dāng)時(shí)伯克以研究員的身份加入了Facebook，開始研究Facebook對(duì)用戶幸福感的影響。該公司稱，這個(gè)團(tuán)隊(duì)目前已經(jīng)增長為“幾十人”。

許多團(tuán)隊(duì)成員都有多年學(xué)術(shù)背景。例如，瓜達(dá)尼奧擁有杜克大學(xué)的心理學(xué)博士學(xué)位，她的專業(yè)是正念對(duì)幸福感的影響；伯克是卡內(nèi)基梅隆大學(xué)的人機(jī)交互學(xué)博士。

Facebook的研究人員將“幸福感”定義為“人們?nèi)绾慰创约旱纳睢薄Ｔ谶@個(gè)范圍內(nèi)，他們主要關(guān)注三個(gè)特定的領(lǐng)域：用戶花在Facebook上的不健康時(shí)間、孤獨(dú)感、與他人對(duì)比后導(dǎo)致自我評(píng)價(jià)降低。

Facebook的瓜達(dá)尼奧說：“這些問題對(duì)人們的生活產(chǎn)生了深遠(yuǎn)影響，已經(jīng)在Facebook上充分顯現(xiàn)。”

該團(tuán)隊(duì)利用之前發(fā)表的學(xué)術(shù)研究作為輔助研究工具，已經(jīng)根據(jù)針對(duì)Facebook的研究發(fā)表了10多篇論文。他們還依靠Facebook用戶作為其研究對(duì)象，有時(shí)長達(dá)數(shù)個(gè)月。

一項(xiàng)研究表明，人們并不是因?yàn)槭褂肍acebook而感到孤獨(dú)；他們只是在感到孤獨(dú)時(shí)使用Facebook。他們的研究結(jié)果表明，F(xiàn)acebook是解決方案，而不是問題所在。

這些研究人員還經(jīng)常與來自大學(xué)、非營利組織和其他組織的專家合作。在某些情況下，這些局外人的加入提供了一個(gè)獨(dú)立的視角。

但考慮到社交媒體的長期影響尚不清楚，這項(xiàng)研究仍然不算完整。畢竟，F(xiàn)acebook面世才15年。隨著Facebook的研究人員了解的更多，他們認(rèn)為公司將根據(jù)新的研究成果進(jìn)一步調(diào)整其產(chǎn)品。

“在Facebook，我們一直專注于深入理解社交媒體和技術(shù)改善或貶低人們生活的方式，并隨著我們了解的深入不斷對(duì)產(chǎn)品做出改變。”主管研究的副總裁戴維·金斯伯格說，“我們的目標(biāo)——所做研究和所開發(fā)產(chǎn)品的目標(biāo)，都是為了確保人們?cè)谠撈脚_(tái)上花費(fèi)的時(shí)間是有意義的。”

這似乎與公司高層產(chǎn)生了共鳴。

去年12月，扎克伯格強(qiáng)調(diào)，公司十分重視對(duì)用戶整體幸福感產(chǎn)生的影響。可以說，這是他首次公開承認(rèn)Facebook對(duì)該問題的關(guān)注。

“2018年，就我個(gè)人而言，面臨的挑戰(zhàn)在于解決Facebook社區(qū)面臨的一些最重要的問題——包括防止干預(yù)選舉，停止仇恨言論和虛假消息的傳播，確保用戶對(duì)自己的信息擁有管控權(quán)，確保我們的服務(wù)有助于提升幸福感。”他在Facebook上的一篇文章中說。

在去年的年報(bào)中，幸福感也被加入到公司面臨的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)因素中。Facebook表示，如果用戶覺得社交網(wǎng)絡(luò)對(duì)他們的幸福感產(chǎn)生了負(fù)面影響，整體業(yè)務(wù)都可能受到損害。

“公司一直很關(guān)注幸福感。”Facebook的幸福產(chǎn)品經(jīng)理錢德拉·莫漢·亞納基拉曼說道，“不同的是，我們對(duì)公司產(chǎn)品影響的認(rèn)識(shí)發(fā)生了改變。”（財(cái)富中文網(wǎng)）

譯者：Agatha

A couple of years ago, a group of researchers at Facebook realized that users felt worse about themselves after incessantly scrolling through their news feeds. The researchers decided to do something about it.

They surveyed Facebook users about their emotional reactions to using the social network. Those findings helped drive one of the biggest changes Facebook has made to date: Showing users more posts from friends and family rather than businesses.

The point was to increase interaction between users, whether commenting or liking posts. The more that people did so, the better they felt, the research found.

The change pushed by Facebook’s little-known well-being team is just one of many issues the group has explored. Its mission is to reduce any negative effects associated with using Facebook, a nearly ubiquitous presence in modern life.

“I came to Facebook because I wanted to have more applied impact with my research,” said Jennifer Guadagno, a research manager for the well-being team. “I felt that my academic research was a few steps more removed from directly impacting people than I personally desired.”

The research is becoming increasingly important as Facebook along with other social media services face intense criticism for exacerbating behavior like addiction and contributing to low self-esteem and loneliness. Those critiques, among a host of others like bullying on the service, are helping fuel calls for more oversight.

The team has a major challenge ahead as it aims to solve a growing conundrum within the tech industry: How to positively impact users’ lives. And over the years, various independent studies have shown that using Facebook can increase depression and make users feel less satisfied with their lives.

A study earlier this year by researchers unaffiliated with Facebook found that people who deactivated their Facebook accounts were happier and more satisfied and felt less anxious and depressed. It was in sharp contrast to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who often brags about Facebook being a critical tool for connecting the world.

“It certainly says there’s an issue there that needs to be addressed, ” said Matthew Gentzkow, a professor at Stanford University who authored the study along with three other professors.

Similarly, a study by researchers at Yale and the University of California at San Diego published in the American Journal of Epidemiology in 2017 suggested that the more people used Facebook, the worse their mental health and personal satisfaction.

While the criticism may be painful to hear, Facebook’s researchers said they understand it.

“The people who are critical about well-being care very much, just as we do,” said Moira Burke, research scientist who focuses on Facebook’s social science research. “We all want the same thing.”

In addition to championing the change to Facebook’s news feed algorithm last year, the team has also helped Facebook create a feature for users to honor loved ones with memorial pages and another that lets users temporarily hide specific friends’ posts so they don’t have to see updates from an ex-spouse, for example.

The team is also exploring how Facebook can help people who recently moved to a new city find new friends or to explore their new community. And researchers want to find ways to help people avoid feeling worse about themselves after comparing their lives to the often idealized ones of smiling babies and exotic vacations that friends invariably post.

Any suggestion the team makes to Facebook’s management is only that—a suggestion. Facebook’s leaders get the ultimate say about what should be adopted.

And that’s the problem, suggests Jennifer Grygiel, a Syracuse University assistant professor who has studied the problem of policing social media content. Hate speech, violent content, and harassment have become so widespread that Facebook can’t keep up. And while users may complain, Facebook is under no requirement to make any changes to address those problems or any others.

“These are corporate entities, and they’re accountable to their shareholders and their profits,” Grygiel said. “They say that they want to help us—that they are putting processes in place to protect us—but they aren’t and don’t have the resources in place to do that.”

The problem with Facebook’s internal research boils down to one thing, says Grygiel: “Nothing can truly be independent when Mark Zuckerberg is the majority shareholder of the company.”

The well-being team hopes it can change that impression by applying academic standards to their work, like publishing papers in well-respected peer-reviewed journals. Ultimately, the researchers say they are approaching Facebook’s problems the only way they know how: as scholars.

The team loosely dates back to 2009, when Burke, who joined Facebook that year as a researcher, began exploring Facebook’s effects on its users’ well-being. Since then, the team has grown to a “few dozen people,” according to the company.

Many of its members have lengthy academic backgrounds. For example, Guadagno has a Ph.D. in psychology from Duke, where she studied the effect of mindfulness on well-being; Burke received her Ph.D. in human-computer interaction from Carnie Mellon University.

Facebook’s researchers define the term “well-being” as “how people perceive their lives.” Within that scope, they focus on three specific areas: unhealthy amounts of time spent on Facebook, loneliness, and declines in self-worth related to users comparing themselves to others.

“These issues are things that have a deep impact on people lives and have played out on Facebook,” Facebook’s Guadagno said.

The team uses previously published academic research to aid it in its studies and has published more than 10 of its own papers based on research conducted at Facebook. The team also relies on Facebook users to serve as subjects for its studies, in some cases for months.

One study showed that people weren’t lonely because they used Facebook; rather they used Facebook when they were feeling lonely. In their findings, Facebook was a solution, not the problem.

The researchers also often team up with experts from universities, nonprofits, and other organizations. In some cases, those outsiders have embedded within Facebook to provide an independent perspective.

But the research is still incomplete considering that the long-term impact of social media is unknown. After all, Facebook has only been around for 15 years. As Facebook’s researchers learn more, they expect that company will tweak its products some more, based on new findings.

“At Facebook, we have been focused on deeply understanding the ways in which social media and technology can both improve and detract from people’s lives, and making product changes as we learn more,” said David Ginsberg, vice president of research. “Our goal, both with the research we do and the products we build, is to make sure that the quality of time people spend on the platform is meaningful.”

That message seems to have resonated with the company’s top executives.

In December, Zuckerberg highlighted the importance of the company’s effects on users’ overall well-being. Last year was arguably the first time he publicly acknowledged Facebook’s focus on the matter.

“For 2018, my personal challenge has been to focus on addressing some of the most important issues facing our community -- whether that’s preventing election interference, stopping the spread of hate speech and misinformation, making sure people have control of their information, and ensuring our services improve people’s well-being,” he said in a post on Facebook.

Well-being also shows up in one of the company’s risk factors in last year’s annual report. Facebook said that its overall business could be harmed if users felt that the social network was negatively affecting their well-being.

“The company has always cared about well-being,” said Chandra Mohan Janakiraman, Facebook’s well-being product manager. “What’s changed is our understanding in terms of the impact our product has had.”