Slashdot Mirror
Heavy Social Media Users 'Trapped In Endless Cycle of Depression' (independent.co.uk)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Independent: The more time young adults spend on social media, the more likely they are to become depressed, a study has found. Of the 19 to 32-year-olds who took part in the research, those who checked social media most frequently throughout the week were 2.7 times more likely to develop depression than those who checked least often. The 1,787 US participants used social media for an average 61 minutes every day, visiting accounts 30 times per week. Of them a quarter were found to have high indicators of depression. "One strong possibility is that people who are already having depressive symptoms start to use social media more, perhaps because they do not feel the energy to drive to engage in as many direct social relationships," said Dr. Brian Primack, director of Pitt's Center for Research on Media, Technology and Health. "People who engage in a lot of social media use may feel they are not living up to the idealized portraits of life that other people tend to present in their profiles. [...] This would be concerning, because it would imply that there is a potential vicious circle: people who become depressed may turn to social media for support, but their excessive engagement with it might only serve to exacerbate their depression."
I was trapped in depression cycles back in USENET!!!! Pssh.. social media...
It could just as well be that depressed people feel lonely and try to connect to others at least this way.
"It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
Oh look,
*This* shit again...
~ People that think they are better than anyone else for any reason are the cause of all the strife in the world.
or egg?
Ignorance is the best therapy for depression. Turn off the TV, kill the Internet for an evening, sit down with a good book or a movie (no ads!!!!) or play a board game with the kids. Orrr, go outside to a dark place and look at the sky. There's a million things to do that don't involve being in everybody's face constantly.
Also, FB is a feedlot. What happens at a feedlot? The sick get weeded out and the rest get slaughtered.
Be warned...
Dear Microlimp: I give you 2 valid product keys for win7 and you reject both of them. Piss off you wankers!!!
It's entirely possible that people who were already depressed for other reasons turned to heavy use of social media as a coping mechanism.
It seems safer. Going into real physical company has its risks, but social media are more under control. If the depressed person is fearful of a rejection, he or she can delay reading it until he or she feels up to it.
Being on social media has got to be better than no human contact, but actual human contact would be better. At least you can let someone know you care through social media, and that's got to be worth something.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
Nothing like being a 30 year old virgin and watching everyone on the internet getting it on 24/7 to send you into a depression spiral.
It's as if the fifth sentence in the post should say: "One strong possibility is that people who are already having depressive symptoms start to use social media more..."
I'm curious how much brain chemistry is affected by social media and whether or not the addictive cycle has anything to play in this area. Certainly there is compulsion involved, and with any typical 12-step program, there's the identification of compulsion used to create powerlessness. Are we powerless to stop checking Facebook or looking to see what replies our comments garner? Am I to surrender the replies to this post to my higher power? ... Well, while you ponder that, I'm going to go chew on my fingernails and hit the refresh button a few dozen times.
Select from tblFriends where interesting >= 4;
When you base your entire self-esteem upon the likes/dislikes of near-random strangers you may or may not know, sure, you're bound to have issues.
I'd be willing to bet that the correlation here is due to these people not having many, if any, hobbies, so they spend a lot of their days browsing social media and not getting out a whole lot. This, combined with the likelihood of seeing their friends on social media going out and doing fun and interesting things probably compounds the problem.
One day it dawned on me that I was checking facebook once an hour for no real reason, and I couldn't remember the last time it had made me happy. Delete. Haven't missed it.
push Facebook so hard.
I propose that what is in fact being observed here is that young adults who are suffering from depression are more likely to turn to social media as an escape or in an attempt to self-medicate.
I think it's great that people are out studying these things quantitatively.
Of course, no-one is surprised, because the "Endless Cycle of Depression" was pointed out as soon as social media started, but it's always better to have quantitative data.
cmon guys at least try a LITTLE bit. from the SUMMARY -
"One strong possibility is that people who are already having depressive symptoms start to use social media more, perhaps because they do not feel the energy to drive to engage in as many direct social relationships," said Dr. Brian Primack
So-called 'social media' is no substitute for actual interaction, preferably face-to-face, and is just enabling socially avoidant people from getting over their awkwardness and anxiety of social situations. Also, your ten-thousand 'friends' on Facebook? They are not your friends. Do yourself a favor and get some real, living, breathing, live-in-person friends that you actually connect with on a personal level.
Be sure to read my sigline before commenting, you'll save you and me both time and energy better spent doing something else.
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
FB and other SM outlets want you at home on FB/SM. Not turning off your device and getting out of the the house. If that takes making you depressed, well...
Your ad here. Ask me how!
This is confirmation of my theory that the more people check your profile, the more vulnerable they are. When Facesuck sends me those "do you know?" messages I know those are usually people that have viewed my page for whatever reason (so, interest). These are people I work on.
One time my profile was viewed by a horny college chick in a place I have never been but she liked my pictures and spread my awesomeness to others. Fucking hell, I got at least 1000 "do you know" messages, all from hot young college chicks. I got so much pussy because I was the "hot bookface guy", my dick still hurts a year later (maybe I should have that checked out).
cmon guys you aren't even trying here! from the fucking summary:
"One strong possibility is that people who are already having depressive symptoms start to use social media more, perhaps because they do not feel the energy to drive to engage in as many direct social relationships," said Dr. Brian Primack
In other news, people who frequently use the Internet see how stupid most other people are.
Representatives from the National Institute of Health (NIH), United States Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), and Centers for Disease Control (CDC) all recommend avoiding interactions with stupid people.
Most importantly, avoid places both real and online, where they may congregate. Specifically mentioned as such dangerously stupid locations are Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Google Plus, Instagram, Snapchat, Reddit, Tumblr, Pinterest, Vine and LinkedIn.
"While you may think that you can help guide some stupid people away from their stupidity, it will only hurt you. Many very intelligent people have tried, driving them to believe this planet is occupied by absolute morons. There are other studies being performed to determine if we have passed the point of idiocracy."
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
A "cycle of depression" typically indicates a situation where an already depressed individual attempts to relieve their depression by a course of action that may have a temporary relief, but just leads to more depression in the long run.
So yes, they were depressed. Then Facebook made them feel a little better for a few minutes, but even more depressed when they stepped away and had to face the fact that all their friends were indistinguishable from chatbots. So they go back to Facebook and enjoy the feel of remote companionship for a few minutes, then they step away...
It could just as well be that depressed people feel lonely and try to connect to others at least this way.
This is very probably the old classic "you know the drill, correlation does not imply causation."
The important questions to be asking at this point is what is causing depression for these people and what is causing depressed people to use social media more than non-depressed people?
I can propose a hypothesis, that people with problems that affect their social lives tend to hide, and all things being equal hiding behind a social media account that is a made up mask of how we wish we were, and in viewing the masks of others and knowing their own is a lie, can amplify the cognitive dissonance that is at the root of one's own perceived depression.
This hypothesis is by no means certain, and many other things could explain some of it... like circadian disturbances from using bright screens at night to hormonal stresses being caused by lack of activity and poor diet.. etc..
Yes!
Does /. count as social media?
Minimum threshold fixed. Thanks!
All of the oversharing of the faux 'my-life-is-super-awesome" lifestyles portrayed would be enough to depress anyone, and add to that the sheer volume of brain-numbing bullshit ("press 'Like' to get this child a new kidney!") and it's no wonder that many people's mental processes become clogged with Facebook sludge.
I noticed this effect years ago when I realized that many of the Facebook addicts I knew were constantly being "one upped" by the constant stream of useless crap and downright false garbage that they tuned in to read on a minute-by-minute basis. Facebook didn't make them feel better, it made them feel worse- lonely, boring, and mundane. They couldn't brag hard enough to make themselves feel good.
I called this effect "Facebook Psychosis", and now it seems I was on to something.
If everyone you know is constantly bragging about how AWESOME and FANTASTIC their life is and they have pictures to "prove" it, who wouldn't be discouraged by the "ordinary" life that you, a mere mortal, seems to lead?
But it's not Facebook's fault per se, any more than it's the bottle of Tequila's fault when someone gets drunk and then crashes their car. It's a contributing cause, but the drunk driver is the one who fucked up.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
...those who check daily to see if anybody has "liked" them on dating websites are 100 times more likely to be depressed!
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
People who engage in a lot of social media use may feel they are not living up to the idealized portraits of life that other people tend to present in their profiles
I noticed this both in the real world and in the social media world very early on. I noticed how the perception of the profile, the sort of larger than life appeal profiles had on people. It sort of created this hunger, this drive for people to become almost morbidly obsessed by the endless detritus of their online lives. And all those posts, updates, etc that don't reflect reality. The online profile and its affect on people is an interesting thing to behold.
We play the game with the bravery of being out of range
One thing I've noticed from recently adding to Facebook several people I went to high school with 40 years ago: all the hot chick in the class now look used up and spit out, kind of like bag ladies, while all the plain girls that couldn't get a date in high school to save their lives still look the same, like they haven't really aged in 40 years. Meanwhile, me and all my male friends are now bald and creepy looking. If only I'd known then how well preserved they would be later, I would have gone for the unpopular girls in high school instead of the popular girls!
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
History of World War 2, if it had been recorded by Facebook
Gently reply
More like depressed people spend too much time... on social media.
Based on what evidence? If anything, what this article suggests is that people who are on social media could be worse off because of it. If social media means people are more likely to cope with a lack of satisfaction in their life by passively viewing social media profiles and less likely to make changes to deal with the underlying issue then there is no reason to believe that social media is better than nothing.
Social media allows you to communicate with friends, and that's almost certainly going to be good. As far as passively viewing social media profiles goes, there's lots of things on the web you can passively view, or stupid games you can play endlessly. TFS doesn't actually have good evidence that social media causes depression, only that depression and heavy social media use are linked.
I'm basing this on personal experience and the experience of friends.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
To be honest, no, not the old classic. I was rather speaking from my very own personal experience.
"It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
Social media is the cause, it's been studied before. It hooks users on a system of little rewards. Every random thing in their life can be judged and rewarded with a "like". They become obsessed with getting positive feedback and start over-valuing other people's opinions. Worse still they start to think negatively when they don't get the positive feedback, even if it's just because they posted at 11PM and no one was around to hit that button.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Liberalism is a mental disorder.
Thanks for speaking up and telling us what depression is really like.
There are times when I tell myself "I feel so depressed!" but it is nothing like what you experience. There are many things I feel unhappy about, many things I am anxious about, but when my primary-care doctor asks me if I am depressed, I say, well no, there are projects at work as well as things at home that I enjoy doing and look forward to very much, so I don't think that I am depressed.
Thanks again for telling us what depression is really like and offering ideas of how we can help friends or family in that condition.
I know this is Slashdot and all, so the suggestion to rtfa is somewhat ridiculous, but the lead researcher actually addressed that very point. She said that could very well be the case, and they weren't making a claim one way or the other in that regard.
I only check anti-social media sites, like Slashdot.
Heavy Social Media Users
I'm not fat! I'm just big-boned. And I hardly ever use social media anyways.
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
because no one cares about what you do.
I spend a month on my hobby video projects which usually are 3 minute clips. I spend hours on camera movements, color correcting, finding the right location. I am quite proud of it. It is something I do in my spare time. I post it on facebook about 3-4 times a year and write about it. I got 2 likes so I guess someone noticed. Yet when I visit friends or family, people still ask me what I have been up to.
- Well, I just posted this update where I wrote about how I went up to do this timelapse of a sunrise above the clouds and spent a lot of time looking at shadows on the mountains to find the right spot.
- You did? I didn't know that?
- I posted it on facebook, didn't you see?
- No?
- Then why the fuck do I waste my time there?
I still do my my videos and pictures, because I like it and it is a nice distraction from work. I just stopped sharing them since it seemed pointless and people didn't read what I wrote or saw what I posted anyway. And everyday when the work day has been bad or everything in general just sucks, I look at what I have created and I am happy again, and I begin to plan what to do next that is different from what I did the last time.
LSE prof Sonia Livingstone, who runs the Parenting.Digital blog as part of her research in this area, sprayed some sense on this story: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/parenti...
wg
What if the issue is that social networkers see a wider variety of people, and in the process see a clearer picture of just how messed up the world truly has become?
That picture is kinda depressing, if things really are stacked against ordinary people.
Or maybe, the researchers operationalized 'depression' as 'not really doing anything' which would seem like a prerequisite for spending a lot of time using social media. Put differently: I'm lazy and prefer to sit around checking Reddit - ad when I filled out a mental health questionnaire it told me I was depressed. Which I'm not.
Before social media existed, depressed people would just isolate themselves. It would just be a downward spiral rather than a cycle.