Are you happier without Facebook? 18,000 slam door on tool for 99 days in counter-experiment

In response to Facebook’s creepy mood experiment involving some 700,000 unwitting users, a new initiative has launched an experiment of its own — determining how life without Facebook impacts user happiness.

The non-profit initiative, known as “99 Days of Freedom” asks users to refrain from Facebook use for a period of 99 consecutive days and report-back on how the hiatus affects personal notions of happiness.

The initiative’s website, 99daysoffreedom.com, provides a set of simple user instructions, which include posting a “time-off” image as a profile picture and starting a personalised, 99-day countdown clock.

The initiative is the brainchild of Just, a creative agency based in Leiden, The Netherlands. Just’s Art Director, Merijn Straathof, explains how what began as an office joke quickly morphed into an officially-funded project.

“Like a lot of Facebook users, many of us were bothered by reports of secret mood experiments,” says Straathof.

“As we discussed it internally, we noted an interesting tendency: To a person, everyone had at least a ‘complicated’ relationship with Facebook.

“Whether it was being tagged in unflattering photos, getting into arguments with other users or simply regretting time lost through excessive use, there was a surprising degree of negative sentiment. Then someone joked, ‘I guess that the real question is, ‘How do you feel when you don’t use Facebook?’ There was group laughter, followed by, ‘Wait a second. That’s a really good question!”.

The organisers say, “Joining the 99 days of freedom experiment only takes a few minutes. Yet it saves the average user 1683 minutes. That’s well over 28 hours of freedom! We will contact you after 33, 66 and 99 days, to see how you’re doing.”