Facebook Posts May Point To Depression, Study Finds (nbcnews.com)

People's Facebook posts might predict whether they are suffering from depression, researchers reported this week. From a report: The researchers found that the words people used seemed to indicate whether they would later be diagnosed with depression. The findings offer a way to flag people who may be in need of help, but they also raise important questions about people's health privacy, the team reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. People who were later clinically diagnosed with depression used more "I" language, according to Johannes Eichstaedt of the University of Pennsylvania and his colleagues. They also used more words reflecting loneliness, sadness and hostility. "We observed that users who ultimately had a diagnosis of depression used more first-person singular pronouns, suggesting a preoccupation with the self," they wrote. That is an indicator of depression in some people. The team recruited 683 people who visited an emergency room for their study and asked to see their Facebook pages. Most were not depressed, but 114 had a depression diagnosis in their medical records.

Comments

Duh

[Ol Olsoc]

Because Facebook causes depression. It's as toxic as methyl mercury

Re:Duh

[Jeremi]

More broadly: social isolation causes depression.

Socially isolated people often turn to Facebook to try to relieve their social isolation, but sitting alone in a room and pretending some pixels on your monitor are your friends is not a long-term viable substitute for actually spending time with people, so that mostly doesn't work.

There's nothing unique about Facebook, one could get equally depressed by spending all one's time alone with Fortnight or Slashdot or Instagram or any other software.

Re:Duh

[ShanghaiBill]

social isolation causes depression.

... and depression causes social isolation. It is hard to break the loop.

sitting alone in a room and pretending some pixels on your monitor are your friends is not a long-term viable substitute for actually spending time with people

Exactly. Pixels are not enough. That's why I got a RealDoll.

Re:Duh

[_merlin]

You previously claimed your wife bought you the RealDoll when she was going away on a business trip, and you really didn't think you'd need it. Have you warmed up to the doll now, to the point that it helps you avoid depression? Is your wife away frequently enough now that she's not providing the companionship you need, and you're falling back on the doll as a substitute? Are you feeling distant from your wife and falling back on the doll? Does this have something to do with your daughter moving out? Curious minds want to know? (Disclosure: I have depression, and have lived away from my wife/kids for extended periods for work, but I don't have a RealDoll or similar.)

Depression is of silent suffering.

[jellomizer]

Not too surprising, Depression is suffering, just like if you have a physical illness. Normally when someone is suffering, they want some sort of attention to it. "My Leg Hurts" or "My Left arm is numb" but when you have depression you are suffering, but not in ways that you can identify. There is pain but you can figure out why, so it may be the guy they don't like so "I hate this guy" or the fact that they want someone there "I am lonely". When one is depresses they want to State that they are in pain... However will redirect the pain to different things.

In other news water is wet

[UnknownSoldier]

There is a reason it's called FecesBook:

Gee, people posting crap about their shitty lives that no one gives a fuck about. Color me surprised. /sarcasm

If people actually *did* things with (or without) their friends instead of posting idiotic selfies maybe they wouldn't feel so lonely instead of living a meaningless life hoping to get likes. I guess they would rather whine about it instead of *doing* something. Doesn't anyone have hobbies anymore??

Irony: And now I'm posting crap about people posting crap. DOH.

Re: Your depressed because of Facebook

[lucasnate1]

Stop using Facebook and get out and experience real life friends

I can't. Nobody is outside because they are all on Facebook.

Re:Yes

[Locke2005]

First clue that you have a mental health problem: you're on FaceBook.

Re:Yes

[Hognoxious]

I don't even use the darn thing and it depresses me. Its mere existence is enough.

Um... do you have any understanding

[rsilvergun]

of clinical depression whatsoever? It means being depressed even when you have hobbies. The problem is that _nothing_ makes you happy. Even things that should. Even things that are going well.

The point of studies like this is to try and tell the difference between somebody going through a rough patch like "work sucks" or "my kid wakes me up at 3am crying every morning" and "I've given up on life".

We'd have a lot less problems in the world if we'd stop telling folks to pull themselves up by their bootstraps (a literal impossibility, the irony of which always seems lost on the folks who favor the phrase) and actually, you know, tried to solve problems.