Facebook Causing Depression?

In today’s world, social media is everywhere. No matter where we go, we observe people browsing or posting to some form of it, whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or others. People everywhere share information and photos about their personal relationships, their careers, their current locations, and more. This sharing and observation of information has become a fascination, as the use of social media has drastically increased from 7% of the American adult population in 2005 to 65% in 2015 (Perrin, 2015). With how popular it’s become, it raises the question of whether or not it’s also potentially harmful.

I have read briefly about the possibility of a connection between social media use, particularly Facebook, and its connection to depression and mood. Yuen et al. (2018) attempted to unravel this mystery by examining how the moods of “emerging adults”, specifically undergraduate students at a private university, were impacted by their use of Facebook (Yuen et al., 2018). The researchers chose to focus on undergraduate students as it is known that 90% of these emerging adults use social media, thus making them a reliable sample (Perrin, 2015). Upon beginning the study, the researchers hypothesized that Facebook use would be associated with a lower mood.

The researchers initially surveyed the participants to uncover their pre-experiment moods before using Facebook. They then implemented Facebook usage into the study by allowing  one group of participants to engage in various Facebook activities for a period of 20 minutes, while another group engaged in general, non-social media related Internet usage for the same period of time (Yuen et al., 2018).  Immediately afterwards, the researchers administered another mood-based survey in order to obtain the participants’ moods after using Facebook and the Internet. The pre- and post-experiment mood evaluations were then compared in order to determine the impact of Facebook and the Internet upon participants’ moods. The results showed that Facebook use led to a significantly lower mood than did browsing the internet, supporting their hypothesis. The authors gathered that, with how heavily Facebook is used, especially by emerging adults, continued negative impact on mood over time could be detrimental to psychological well-being (Yuen et al., 2018).

This was eye-opening for me because I know that the majority of my friends (emerging adult age) are incredibly involved in social media. I have witnessed first hand the effects that certain posts or information sent or received through social media sites has had on friends and it is overwhelming at times. I have witnessed amongst my friends break ups, fights, losses of friends, losses of jobs, the onset of therapy, onset of depression and/or anxiety and more all related to social media usage. As the aforementioned research supports, I find it extremely important to continue research into the impact of social media usage on our mental health and well-being. Is this connection to lower moods after Facebook usage a sign that Facebook is, over time, leading to depression? If so, the more we discover pertaining to the connection, the better we will be able to prevent such effects from being as detrimental.

References

Perrin, A. (2015). Social networking usage: 2005– 2015. Washington, DC: Pew Research Center. http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/10/08/social-networking-usage-2005-2015/

Yuen, E. K., Koterba, E. A., Stasio, M. J., Patrick, R. B., Gangi, C., Ash, P., Barakat, K., Greene, V., Hamilton, W., & Mansour, B. (2018, January 18). The Effects of Facebook on Mood in Emerging Adults. Psychology of Popular Media Culture. Advance online publication. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000178

1 comment

  1. I too feel that as an active social media participant, the idea that these platforms could be a source for depression and reported mood issues is troubling. There is tremendous power in the things posted in these forums. My boyfriend is in a hockey league and an avid hockey enthusiast, and as such is part of many forums. Recently, he told me about a guy that is part of his group who was talking aggressive trash to another team’s fan online and got carried away a bit. Unfortunately for him, the person he was talking trash to looked his place of employment up via the social network and contacted them directly; sending them screenshots of their employee saying less than savory things. He was terminated from his job less than a week later. Now this is by no means a way of condoning his actions, but it does pose the question of… how much information is too much information to grant to others; and how can this information be used against us. I know of many people who have been in serious relationships that ended over a partner excessively liking another person’s pictures.

    Social media clearly provides a means for heavy altering perceptions to be formed and perhaps even provides avenues for us as individuals to be colored in unfavorable lighting. This unfavorable lighting in reality can alienate a person from those that they are seeking to be social with. “The very definition of “social” media may be misleading, according to experts who are finding that the more time teens spend on social media, the lonelier and more anxious they are” (Barrett, 2018).

    Great piece, thanks for sharing.

    -Stefani

    References:

    Barrett, K. (2018, October 03). Social Media’s Impact on Students’ Mental Health Comes Into Focus. Retrieved March 18, 2019, from http://neatoday.org/2018/09/27/social-media-impact-on-students-mental-health/

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