Facebook Depression
Of all the kids who use the Internet, almost 75% of them use a social networking service (SNS,) like Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Friendster, etc. The most popular one is Facebook, so we’re willing to bet that many of the kids we talk to have an account there. This article isn’t just for Facebook users, though; any SNS is capable of making you feel bad.
There’s definitely good reasons to have a Facebook account, namely that you can keep in touch with your friends and sometimes make new ones. But there’s some negatives, too, and those negatives became pretty obvious when the American Academy of Pediatrics warn about something called “Facebook Depression.”
It isn’t just depression, either. There’s actually a whole slew of powerful, negative emotions that Facebook can easily generate, like the following:
- Anxiety
- Jealousy
- Stress
- Pressure
- Dislike
- Loneliness
Feeling too much of those emotions can lead you straight to a bout of “Facebook Depression.”
Why Does Facebook Bum Kids Out?
There are many, many ways to find yourself suffering from Facebook Depression:
- Facebook OCD – This isn’t your typical Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, but it sort of feels like it. People with Facebook OCD feel the urge to constantly check their Facebooks for updates. This is really exhausting and takes you away from other things you could or should be doing.
- The grass is always greener – People tend to post happy things on Facebook, or they try to put humorous spins on the bad things. It’s easy to start thinking that everybody is happier or better off than you when that just isn’t the case.
- Neglect – There’s a possibility that on some random day, no one is going to post anything about you or to you, even if you have a thousand friends. You wake up and check Facebook, and no one’s responded to your hilarious updates or blogs. By the time you go to bed, there’s still no sign of life on your page. This doesn’t at all mean that everyone suddenly doesn’t like you, but it can feel pretty bad, can’t it?
- Getting dissed – You know how easy it is to accidentally unfriend someone? And do you know how much it can hurt to find out that you’ve been unfriended? It could have been a slip of the mouse that caused a buddy of yours to delete you off his friendlist, but it can have devastating effects. The same is true when you send a friend request to someone and it’s either never approved or blatantly denied. How insulting!
- Espionage – Some kids have been known to try the stalking technique on people they’re interested in but can’t or won’t send a friend request to. Of course, to see the most information on many profile pages, you have to be a friend, so kids create fake profiles of alluring-looking strangers. The unfortunate soul who accepts the friend request from this stranger may be letting a gossipy classmate into her private Facebook space, and the next day at school, everyone knows everything she’s ever posted.
- Stranger-Danger – This is probably what your parents worry about the most when they find out you have a Facebook. You’re gonna fall in love with a nice-looking boy from Venice named Giovanni only to find out he’s an aging manure farmer from southern New Jersey. If that isn’t depressing, we don’t know what is.
- Bullying – Being bullied in real life is bad enough, but bullying can actually get worse when kids are doing it on a site like Facebook. Bullies can amass mobs of other Facebook users to swarm you with slander, and there’s often no responsible adult monitoring any of it. Plus, a lot of those Facebook bullies are regular bullies you have to put up with at school, too, so you don’t get any respite from them.
- Oversharing – Incredible FAILs have come from oversharing. They can make for funny stories, but not if you’re personally involved. People have lost friendships, jobs, relationships, cell phone privileges, etc. because of oversharing. A classic example of oversharing is when someone brags to their friends about all the beer they illegally imbibed over the weekend whilst forgetting they added their grandmother as a friend.
- Romantic Drama– According to recent research, 80% of Facebook users add past boyfriends/girlfriends to their friendlists. This is trouble waiting to happen! Let’s say Average Joe sees his ex-girlfriend at a coffee shop over the weekend, says “hi,” and keeps walking. Since she’s probably added as a friend, she’s got the ability to post something like, “How’d you like that coffee on Saturday?” right out there in public where Joe’s current girlfriend can see it and become enraged! …And then there is the drama and the emotions that result when someone you have a crush on suddenly changes their status to say they are in a relationship with the one guy/girl you most despise!
- Simple misinterpretation – If you see a photo of your three best friends smiling at some soirée you don’t remember attending, you’re going to feel left out...but it could all be a misunderstanding. Your friends might be smiling for the camera at a church or sporting event that you normally wouldn’t attend anyway. Before you have a chance to obtain a reasonable explanation, your day is already ruined.
See how easy it is to get worked up over Facebook?
So What You Do About All This?
Two simple rules:
- Give it a rest – If you find yourself checking Facebook every half-hour, it’s time to start weaning yourself away from it. The more you check Facebook, the more opportunity you have to get entangled in some kind of drama.
- Be Realistic – Keep in mind how easy it is to blow a gasket over something you’ve seen on Facebook. Remember some of those common snares: misinterpretation, accidents, oversharing, greener grass, etc. If a friend disses you on the ‘net, think to yourself, “Would they do this in real life?” If not, there may be a perfectly rational explanation, so don’t let some Facebook anomaly ruin your day.
Facebook needs to be positive – a site where you keep in touch with friends. Don’t let it turn into a negative, or you might end up with “Facebook Depression!”