Facebook Caused Poor Mental Health From the Beginning

There is an epidemic of mental health problems in the U.S., and social science research is increasingly finding a connection between social media and poor mental health. This has been documented in correlational studies–which examine when two things are related, without being able to show one definitely causes the other. It has also been seen in experiments, which do allow us to establish cause and effect. For example, people who were randomly assigned to give up social media reported feeling less depression and anxiety after a week, compared to those randomly assigned to keep using social media as normal.

A prominent argument on this issue is that a change in the feed—what users see when they log in to Facebook (and similar social media sites)—led social media to be particularly harmful to mental health. Yet new research using an innovative design to test whether Facebook caused mental health problems contradicts this story. Facebook has been causing poorer mental health in college students since it was first rolled out among a small group of elite colleges and universities. The study also provides some evidence for why Facebook might be causing mental health problems.

The key findings, which were confirmed after checking multiple assumptions, are that after Facebook was introduced to a campus, more students on that campus reported having depression and anxiety disorders. In particular, they were more likely to say they felt hopeless, exhausted, and “severely depressed.” When Facebook was introduced to a campus, more students were also reporting that mental health problems affected their academics. Further, the effect was strongest among students who were already most susceptible to mental illness. In other words, Facebook made college students already predisposed to depression or anxiety more likely to actually experience poor mental health.

Social media allows you to see large amounts of your peers’ lives in intimate detail, which can magnify opportunities for comparing your own life to theirs. With so many more people to compare yourself to, and so much more of your time spent looking at these comparisons, college students may have naturally started to find themselves lacking. It would be nice to believe that just by clearing out bots and advertisements, we could make Facebook a healthy source of connection. But it may be the core feature of social media itself—the ability to share private moments of daily life with friends and peers—that actually causes harm."

*Social media is both good and bad. I love social media because I am able to keep in touch with friends and family that don't live super close and see photos of everyone growing up! There's the bad side of social media though. We see everyone with their edited photos and all the smiles when in reality, that's not 100% the truth. People only post the good aspects of their lives and we need to remember to take it with a grain of salt. Of course no one wants to post the negative parts of life! But there's so much we don't see. It's so easy to compare ourselves, but remember that there is always more than what meets the eye. You are all amazing! How do you keep yourself from experiencing the negative sides of social media?*

#SocialMedia #Depression #Anxiety

Please find the full article at Psychology Today.