WARNING: Facebook may cause depression

David Miller

The Signal

The most influential invention of our time is nothing more than a website. It has helped connect billions worldwide, and social networking as a whole has opened a floodgate to this new wave of communication.

Users can upload photos and tag people for the entire world to see, but lately concerns are arising over the recently exposed threat of Facebook depression.

Facebook depression results when a user obsesses over online social networks. They feel left out and don’t think their life measures up. Sometimes Facebook depression can also occur when a user is abused, ridiculed or harassed through the website.

Facebook is a tool that we need for networking so it must be treated with respect and used constructively. Social networking sites have made breakthroughs for online socializing and general connectivity.

The average teen spends 31 hours online per week, alot of them on Facebook. Nearly all new cellphones come with a Facebook application. This enables people to be connected all the time, anywhere.

It is possible that any depression linked to Facebook is merely circumstance and not in direct result from using the site. Regardless, Facebook can be intimidating to people dealing with poor self-esteem.

Sometimes the harm is intentional, cyber bullying being a worst case scenario. However, sometimes usage creates unintentional harm.

Since online text lacks body language and other expressions, there is no way to see or hear physical communication or emotions, similar to text messaging or email. Harm can come unintentionally from a lack of self-censoring or cyber civility.

There are multiple accounts of teen suicide as a result of cyber bullying. The invasiveness and pervasiveness of the cyber world can be overwhelming to users.

The ones most vulnerable to Facebook depression are teens and children. Parents need to understand that too much Facebook can have a negative impact on their children. It can make them obsess over a fictitious life, much like obsessing over video games.

Users also need to understand the difference between a friend and an acquaintance, and about the superficial tendency of social media. If unsupervised, they can end up living vicariously through the site, abused through it or depressed by it.

Facebook can make communication easier for socially well-adjusted children and have the opposite effect for those prone to depression, but even well-adjusted children can become depressed when negative messages are repeated over and over and appear to be coming out of the woodwork.

Nevertheless, when Facebook is used constructively, it provides worldwide networking like nothing else in history. It can be a magnifying glass on ourselves, but Facebook is a great way to connect for free with people from all over the world, and so it must be used constructively and with respect.