Hoping for a happy Christmas? Then get off Facebook

Looking at other people's festive social media posts over Christmas will make you miserable, a new report says.

A study by the University of Copenhagen found scrolling through posts of "perfect" holiday snaps makes users feel envious and decreases their levels of satisfaction and emotional well-being.

"Regular use of social networking such as Facebook can negatively affect your emotional well-being and satisfaction with life," warns the Cyberpsychology, Behaviour and Social Networking study.

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The worst impact comes from "lurking" - passively staring at posts for hours on end without actually engaging with anyone, the BBC reports.

Researchers also recommend taking a break from social media altogether - study participants who ditched Facebook for seven days showed a statistically significant improvement in wellbeing within that period, against those who continued using the platform as usual, the Huffington Post reports.

Even using other websites for 20 minutes helped, the study found.

However, if giving up Facebook is too much to contemplate, the university suggests interacting with people and engaging in conversations online as a way to lessen the effects.

Otherwise users risk making "unrealistic social comparisons" between themselves and their friends, leading to a "deterioration of mood", the BBC says.