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Researchers Say Social Media Can Cause Depression (marketwatch.com) 99

Spending too much time on "social media" sites like Facebook is making people more than just miserable. It may also be making them depressed. From a report: A new study conducted by psychologists at the University of Pennsylvania has shown -- for the first time -- a causal link between time spent on social media and depression and loneliness, the researchers said. It concluded that those who drastically cut back their use of sites like Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat often saw a marked improvement in their mood and in how they felt about their lives.

"It was striking," says Melissa Hunt, psychology professor at University of Pennsylvania, who led the study. "What we found over the course of three weeks was that rates of depression and loneliness went down significantly for people who limited their (social media) use." Many of those who began the study with moderate clinical depression finished just a few weeks later with very mild symptoms, she says.

The study, "No More FOMO: Limiting Social Media Decreases Loneliness and Depression," was conducted by Melissa Hunt, Rachel Marx, Courtney Lipson and Jordyn Young, is being published by the peer-reviewed Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology. For the study, Hunt and her team studied 143 undergraduates at the University of Pennsylvania over a number of weeks. They tested their mood and sense of well-being using seven different established scales.

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Researchers Say Social Media Can Cause Depression

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  • No Shit (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 12, 2018 @12:42PM (#57631542)

    You only get one life - live it in the real world.

    Stop using social media.

    Turn off the algorithms.

    Stop watching 24/7 opinion channels pretending to be news.

    There is nothing positive in any of it.

    • People have found a virtual form of alcohol which makes them feel powerful, but at the same time causes depression. No doubt there will be a link found to violence in the future.

      Worst thing is, you can't regulate it.

      • by Alypius ( 3606369 ) on Monday November 12, 2018 @12:54PM (#57631626)
        We just need common-sense social media reform. No one's coming to take your facebooks away!
      • Worst thing is, you can't regulate it.

        Then it's time for the people to regulate themselves. One could write software that monitors usage on certain social media websites or apps, and that could send an alert or disable the app after so many minutes. Give the software away for free.

        • Nice idea, but there's one big problem with it. The people who need it the most are the least likely to use it.
          • Just treat it like it is: addiction. Offer recovery programs for it and those that have have a problem with it, and have had enough could find their own support groups to overcome it, much like how things currently work with those with substance abuse issues.
            • much like how things currently work with those with substance abuse issues.

              Yeah, because THAT'S going really well.

              Now for the statistics:
              Inpatient treatment costs $3,200 on average. 73% of addicts complete treatment and 21% remain sober after five years.
              Residential treatment costs $3,100 on average. 51% of addicts complete treatment and 21% remain sober after five years.
              Detox costs $2,200 on average. 33% of addicts complete treatment and 17% remain sober after five years.
              Outpatient drug-free treatments cost $1,200 on average. 43% of addicts complete treatment and 18% remai

        • by gnick ( 1211984 )

          ...software that monitors usage...and that could send an alert or disable the app after so many minutes.

          I've never tried this feature [cnn.com], and it doesn't sound like it has everything you're looking for, but it's something.

      • you can't regulate it.

        Why? One cannot make laws about it? What you call "regulation"?

    • > You only get one life - live it in the real world.
      > Stop using social media.

      Those two are the best advice for anyone! I wish I could mod you up.

      > Stop watching 24/7 opinion channels pretending to be news.

      And that! It doesn't matter which flavor you prefer, CNN or FoxNews. It is a pointless waste of time. They hook you in with a promise of some great story -- right after the break! But you don't actually get it until the end of the hour, and guess what . . . it's not what they prom
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • by Anonymous Coward

    You're telling me constantly hearing about the good things in other peoples lives on an hourly basis and almost never hearing about their struggles or problems is bad for your mental health? Bullshit!

    • by Anonymous Coward

      It's not even that. It's facebook deliberately manipulating your feed so you only see negative things.

      Because they want you to click on ads. People who are happy and fulfilled don't click on ads seeking out some product to "fill the hole in their life".

      It's all poison. It's designed to be poison. The people who run these companies are doing this to you on purpose.

      A skyrocketing suicide just means more shiny sheckels to them.

  • Not 'can' (Score:2, Insightful)

    by nospam007 ( 722110 ) *

    Does and Will.

    • Does or does not. There is no can.

      -or-

      Don't try to Does the Will, only try to realize the truth . . . there is no Can.
    • I used to post a lot on FB (mostly political/philosophical topics), then quit, months later went back again, slowly started posting again a lot, then quit again. It's like when you stop smoking the smoke suffocates you and you wonder how you ever could, but you know there is something about it that could get you hooked again if you don't stay away.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    People usually post on social media when things are going well for them or they are happy.

    So if you have a pile of friends, some of them will typically be posting something sickening like that.

    And you will see that and wonder why you aren't doing the things they are, why they do so much more, and then you feel like crap.

    The fact that the other people are also feeling crap is not noticed, as few people post things like that on social media.

    Social media simply cannot beat going to the pub in person, and havin

    • Social media, apart from tearing apart the fabric of society, has entertainment value.

      Everyone wants to be entertained. For free, of course. So they expect all of their friends to post something funny or entertaining. But nobody does. Like Reality TV some entertainment is the shock value of the things other people post -- which is not funny.

      In other news the Parisian bistro is dying. Wait! What distro? And what kernel does it run?
  • by Anonymous Coward

    What if it isn't specifically social media, but the whole dang Internet?

    Amazon - Buy Now!
    Google - Buy Now!
    Microsoft - Buy Now!
    Local Potato Chip Factory - Buy Now!

    I don't know about the rest of you guys, but I was out of money a long time ago.

    • > Amazon - Buy Now!
      > Google - Buy Now!
      > Microsoft - Buy Now!
      > Local Potato Chip Factory - Buy Now!

      Amazon - Bye Now!
      Google - Bye Now!
      Microsoft -- Bye Bye Now! Hope not to see you again!
      Local Potato Chip Factory -- Yum.

      Deal of the day! 3100 calories for the price of only 500!
  • by Rick Schumann ( 4662797 ) on Monday November 12, 2018 @12:50PM (#57631600) Journal
    Gee, wonder how big their grant was to conduct this 'study', and what the money was actually spent on? /s

    Facebook is not the real world, not by a longshot. It's closer to reality on a middling-bad acid trip, and that's on a good day.
    Humans are a social species, and so-called 'social media' (especially Facebook) is about as ersatz as ersatz can get; it's like a bad Chinese knock-off of actual social interaction.

    So the jury is in with their verdict: Kill your Facebook account, do it today, and start being actually social with people again. I've said it before, I'll say it again, and I'll keep saying it: 'Social media' is cancerous, and now we see the proof. It needs to be surgically excised from your lives, and real social interaction is the chemo to fix the damage.
    • ...he says, while posting on social media.
      • This is not social media, this is a news site with commenting. Get off it, troll.
        • You've got users, likes, dislikes, tags, achievements, the ability to make friends and enemies...and people calling those with whom they disagree "trolls". Sounds like social media to me.
          • Nope. Nothing anyone can say will convince me otherwise. No one is posting shit about their day, or vacation photos, or any of the other shit people put on so-called 'social media' sites. The site owners decide what gets posted here and people can comment on those stories. So you see you're completely and totally wrong. /subject
        • Wow, the original post was more than 140 characters? How did they do that?
        • this is a news site

          Media

          with commenting

          Social

          So what you're saying is this is a media-social site? Cool, thanks for the clarification.

      • Social media is when your identity is known. That makes all the difference in the world.

    • The real world is toxic to introverts and bullies them into oblivion.

  • Old News (Score:4, Insightful)

    by DaMattster ( 977781 ) on Monday November 12, 2018 @12:53PM (#57631614)
    This is hardly earth shattering at this point. I remember when the initial studies of the toxicity of social media first came out several years ago. Facebook just about encourages us to compare and judge our lives to that of our friends. This comparison can cause depression when we perceive our friends as having more success in career and family than we have. On top of that, add the constant cycle of bad political and world news and it just spirals downhill. The best thing I ever did was delete Facebook and Twitter. The more people that get off of these platforms the better their mental health would be.
    • This is hardly earth shattering at this point. I remember when the initial studies of the toxicity of social media first came out several years ago. Facebook just about encourages us to compare and judge our lives to that of our friends.

      Worse yet, it's not actually your friends' lives, but the idealized, sanitized version that they post on social media. They're always on vacation or doing something cool and nothing bad ever happens.

    • How can you call it "old news" when, as the article and summary both say, this is the very first time a causal link has been measured and published. That's the very definition of "new news". Maybe you're thinking of "old conjecture"...?

  • The harms from social media are WAY worse than smoking or alcohol and is unregulated. I am a conservative and against regulation, but this money grab by major tech giants at the expense of humans well being has got to end.
    • I agree with that, but the regulation must be very well debated before crafted, to avoid the maximum of misuse possible...
  • by Anonymous Coward

    Fake "friendships", no conversation, just people soapboxing a paragraph or two to 300 people who will skim over it or ignore it if its not a topic they have in common. Very dull, time consuming to follow, when following the writings of 300 people consumes so much spare time.

    The old fashioned way was better, when you talked with people, instead of talking at them as with "social" media, and learned what they liked to talk about and learned to converse with them.

  • by FilmedInNoir ( 1392323 ) on Monday November 12, 2018 @01:11PM (#57631748)
    I only get depressed when I visit the comments section
  • by DickBreath ( 207180 ) on Monday November 12, 2018 @01:15PM (#57631778) Homepage
    There might be a semi objective measure for depression.

    Q. How much do you use social media?

    Add up the points from the following items. If you score more than 10 points, you've discovered what is contributing to your problem.

    * If you use Facebook, add 500 points.
    * If you use Twitter, add 275 points.
    * If you use Instagram add 425 points.
    * If you use WhatsApp add 300 points.
  • ... depressing.

  • As much of Social Media is a lie to begin with.

    Plenty of folks use the various platforms to brag or show how amazing and fulfilling their lives are when, it's usually nothing more than staged fantasy.

    Many folks don't see it for what it is and it then becomes a digital version of keeping up with the Jonses.

    Unless they, too, partake in the charade, they can't possibly keep up which causes anxiety, depression and other issues.

     

  • this [xkcd.com].

    Do Slashdot topics follow xkcd themes, or rather Randall Munroe reads Slashdot ?
  • Damn, that's depressing. I'm depressed and lonely. If only I used social media, I'd at least have a way to be less depressed and lonely by stopping. But I don't, so I guess I'm stuck this way.

  • Honestly, if people who live on facebook and spend 6+ hours a day on TV would grow increasingly depressed and kill themselves, how is that a loss for Humanity?

    I don't dislike them personally, but c'mon: what are those - likely tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions world wide - contributing?

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

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