More Facebook friends means more stress: report

Adding employers or parents resulted in the greatest increase in anxiety, says report

A wide circle of friends on Facebook may make you feel popular but it can also give you stress!

The more people you have as your Facebook friends, the more likely you are to get stressed trying not to cause offence, according to a new report.

The report from the University of Edinburgh Business School has found that the more groups of people in someone's Facebook friends, the greater the potential to cause offence.

In particular, adding employers or parents resulted in the greatest increase in anxiety.

Stress arises when a user presents a version of himself on the social networking site Facebook that is unacceptable to some of their online 'friends', such as posts displaying behaviour such as swearing, recklessness, drinking and smoking.

As older people join the site, this has become an increasing problem as their expectations may be very different from those of younger users, the report said.

Some 55% of parents follow their children on Facebook.

Researchers found that on average people are Facebook friends with seven different social circles. The most common group was friends known offline (97% added them as friends online), followed by extended family (81%), siblings (80%), friends of friends (69%), and colleagues (65%).

The report also discovered that more people are Facebook friends with their former partners than with their current relationship partner. The report surveyed more than 300 people on Facebook, mostly students, with an average age of 21.

It also discovered that only one third use the listing privacy setting on their Facebook profile, which can be used to control the information seen by different types of friends.

"Facebook used to be like a great party for all your friends where you can dance, drink and flirt. But now with your Mum, Dad and boss there the party becomes an anxious event full of potential social landmines," Ben Marder, author of the report said in a statement.