According to a study by two German universities, people had negative feelings and felt envious after using Facebook.

The study, which surveyed about 600 people, found about 1 in 3 people had experienced envy while using the site. Viewing other people’s travel and leisure activities was the most frequent cause of jealousy.

“We were surprised by how many people have a negative experience from Facebook with envy leaving them feeling lonely, frustrated or angry,” said Hanna Krasnova, one of the study’s researchers from the Institute of Information Systems at Berlin’s Humboldt University, in an article by Reuters.

Lori Andrews, a professor at Illinois Institute of Technology Chicago-Kent College of Law and an expert in social media and information technology, said the study’s findings are hardly surprising because of how people typically behave on the Internet.

She said people typically behave more negatively and harsher online than in person, and people have been known to use the anonymity associated with the Internet for cyberbullying.

“People using social network might get more depressed because of the way in which there’s a continuous cycle where you want people to like you,” Andrews said. “It’s another metric on which to judge yourself.”

Karl Gude, MSU’s graphics editor-in-residence and social media expert, said Facebook has a unique ability among social media sites to make people feel worse.

Although people might get jealous of how many followers another person has on Twitter, Facebook is one of the few sites that truly is social instead of business-related, he said.

“(Other sites) are nothing compared to the incredible social pressure you see on Facebook,” Gude said. “It’s the middle school cafeteria. It’s who you sit with and who liked who.”

The study found people who were frustrated after using the site typically were unsatisfied with the number of likes, comments and feedback they received on their postings on the site.

He said because technology is advancing, the phenomenon likely will continue to grow.

Andrews said Facebook and other social media sites have had a positive effect and have opened doors on ways to collaborate, but students should remember the Internet isn’t everything.

“Be out there with people whose actions you can judge and (who) can actually see the real effect of it,” Andrews said.

Elementary education freshman Sophie Skochelak said she uses Facebook up to 10 hours each week and doesn’t feel it has a negative effect on her.

“I could see (the findings) being true, but I mostly just use Facebook because I’ll be in class and I get bored,” she said.

However, elementary education junior Zach Retterath said after hearing the findings, he plans to use Facebook less than his typical five hours each week.

“Definitely I’ll try to manage my time a little better,” he said.

Staff writer Caleb Nordgren contributed to this story.