Facebook Depresses Me

Facebook Depresses Me - Some decades back, a new kind of interaction has conquered the world by broadening considerably the method people take pleasure in information and also amusement: television. Back then television was a large action for humanity, even if there were people that had a different point of view. The poet and dramatist TS Eliot, for instance, mentioned: "It is a medium of entertainment which permits numerous people to listen to the exact same joke at the same time, however nevertheless, they remain to be alone".

Facebook And Depression

Now you could apply the very same reasoning to socials media, especially Facebook, which in ten years has gotten to 1.3 billion subscribers, half of which passes an average of 18 minutes logged. Facebook attaches individuals around the world. Nonetheless, the impact of this social media is not as favorable as you might assume.

Facebook Depresses Me


An increasing number of researches recommend that the opportunity to be "linked" with other individuals does not necessarily mean to be happier; in fact, it might adversely affect our state of mind, due to the fact that lots of people are attached but still are alone.

Hereof, psychologists of the College of Michigan and College of Louvain, have decided to strengthen the connection in between making use of Facebook and also an enjoyable life. These scientists asked a group of people to state 5 times a day for two weeks on their mood. So they located that using Facebook is associated with a poor health. They additionally found that individuals claim they really feel worse after seeing the social network, not in the past.

Friendly World Syndrome: Everyone seems to be more happy and successful than us
Why using Facebook can influence our state of mind making us feel even worse? These psycho therapists indicate that a person of our fundamental requirements is the social call. Social relationships are an incredible source of comfort. Yet the social media does not offer us the type of social call we need to stay healthy.

One feasible explanation could be the simple jealousy. Nevertheless, Facebook permits us to see the accomplishments of individuals with whom we have shed contact. Moreover, in a certain sense, this social network has actually become a collection of bluster, an area where people gather their successes at the workplace and in their individual life, upload images of their wonderful family, of the expensive automobile or the amazing vacation.

As a matter of fact, this phenomenon has a name: the "friendly globe síndrome", which describes the tendency to assume that every one of them have a better life than us. This sensation is the result of an effect recognized by sociologists in 1970 called the "considerable globe síndrome", according to which, people who saw a lot of physical violence on tv believed the globe was a lot more violent than it actually was. Something comparable happens to us with Facebook, checking out pictures as well as updates, we assume that the others are happier than us, which reduces our contentment with life and also may even trigger us clinical depression.

Popularity Contest: The friendship paradox
There could be another issue underlying the discontentment and also despair that generates Facebook, the sensation that everybody is a lot more prominent than us. It is known as the "friendship paradox" because, as a rule, our close friends often tend to have even more pals than us.

This sensation results from a straightforward mathematical factor: if you're an introvert, there is a likelihood that amongst your buddies there are lots of extroverted people, which subsequently have many pals. It is a bias that ends up being much more obvious in social media networks due to the fact that with a quick look at the account we can understand how prominent our close friends are.

This discovery could distress lots of people making them think that they are not worthwhile of attention or affection from their good friends, and also this might trigger clinical depression.

What would happen if you stop using Facebook?
This concern is what some psycho therapists of the Joy Study Institute of Copenhagen asked themselves, as well as to respond to it have actually hired more than 1,000 customers of this social media network. Fifty percent of them remained to use the web daily, the other half has stopped entirely.

It is significant that after just one week, 88% of individuals that have actually quit making use of the social network reported really feeling happier, less upset, much more fired up, less depressed, and also much more completely satisfied with their lives. Similarly, it was noted that their stress and anxiety level has decreased by 55%.

These psycho therapists have actually additionally discovered that we have a tendency to focus on what others have. The research exposed that 5 out of 10 individuals covet the fantastic experiences that publish on the social media network, 1 out of 3 people covet the evident joy of others, and also 4 of 10 envy the noticeable success of others.

Obviously, isn't Facebook that is lowering our contentment with life and makes us feel negative, yet our propensity to confront as well as the cognitive prejudices that appear during the process. But the truth remains that the method which this network is structured greatly helps with such comparisons.

For that reason, the best solution is to focus on our reality, beyond the electronic profiles, and also avoid comparisons that do not bring anything to us. We need to begin to concentrate on what we truly require, as opposed to on what others have.