Facebook the Social Isolation Network

Facebook depression is it caused or is Facebook just a tool? I’ve learned a lot about Facebook Depression but I still have one source to get through. My 4th and final source is “The Impact of Social Media on Children, Adolescents, and Families” by Gwenn Schurgin O'Keeffe gets straight to the point by calling Facebook Depression a new phenomenon. Facebook Depression is now according to this article something they believe to be as real as cyberbullying or sexting

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O'Keeffe even goes on to define it “as depression that develops when preteens and teens spend a great deal of time on social media sites, such as Facebook, and then begin to exhibit classic symptoms of depression” Do people just experience depression the minute they jump on Facebook? Not probable. As the article goes on O'Keeffee explains “Acceptance by and contact with peers is an important element of adolescent life… As with offline depression, preadolescents and adolescents who suffer from Facebook depression are at risk for social isolation” In one way it doesn’t make any sense that a “social network” could cause social isolation because that’s the whole point of the website to share with others, yet in another light there are people who post who may not actually have any real friends. Meaning they post to their peers to get likes but that may be all the social interaction they may get.

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The article concludes by addressing that Pediatricians are to be held responsible to educate people about Facebook Depression. O'Keeffe thinks that “Pediatricians can help parents understand that what is happening online is an extension of these underlying issues and that parents can be most helpful if they understand the core issues and have strategies for dealing with them.” My audience is around college students, so, Why would we expect our parents to be held responsible for being educated? I think it’s because parents are the ones who worry the most and should be the first held responsible for noticing that their child could be experiencing Facebook Depression.

This source certainly raised some new questions: Is it possible that teens and young adults just stay clear of Facebook until they're fully grown?, Should Colorado health officials be held responsible for trying to improve youth's self-esteem?

As I said I have learned about Facebook Depression throughout this blog research project. I initially thought Facebook could only be used as a tool to put your thoughts online including the sad ones. My views have changed the more studies and articles I read because there are actually a few aspects of Facebook I honestly believe could make someone feel depressed and those might be the things that cause people to write the thoughts they have in the first place.

I still ponder though just because some people do encounter some of those feelings will it eventually happen to everyone. I would also be interested in knowing more about why we feel the need to share how we feel online in the first place. In my final argumentative essay I want to argue that people use Facebook as a tool more than they get depressed from using the site. Throughout my research it is proven that they can find evidence of actual depression from the analysis of college student’s statuses.

O'Keeffe, Gwenn Schurgin, and Kathleen Clarke-Pearson. "The impact of social media on children, adolescents, and families." Pediatrics 127.4 (2011): 800-804.

How Far Can Oversharing On Facebook Go?

In my first blog post, I looked at a study which reported on if users of Facebook posted statuses that were considered symptoms of depression. My second source happens to be another study by Megan Moreno and her fellow psychologists called “A Pilot Evaluation of Associations Between Displayed Depression References on Facebook and Self-reported Depression Using a Clinical Scale”. This time around the scientists asked college students who posted statuses that had depression symptoms to take an online PHQ-9 depression scale. I’m going, to be honest, why did this study really need to take place wouldn’t you assume that if someone said they were sad a lot that they are going to say they are sad on a quiz they volunteered to take? Well, that’s the whole point of science studies is prove or disprove this theory that they had. Just thought I’d mention that because I had the previous comment about my source being biased.

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According to Moreno “Though it did not reach statistical significance (p = 0.056), there was a trend that suggested depression symptom displayers were more likely than non-displayers to score into one of the depression categories (mild, moderate, or severe) based on the PHQ-9 “ With this finding does that mean I can just start going through my friends Facebook profiles and diagnose them with depression? Not exactly Moreno shuts this down very quickly by stating “These preliminary findings do not suggest that Facebook should be used to formally diagnose depression; a diagnosis of depression is comprised of symptom patterns over time. Without clinical context including duration, severity, and frequency of the displayed symptoms, formal diagnosis cannot be without clinical evaluation. However, as Facebook displays are marked with a date, it would be possible to observe not only individual references but patterns over time.” Posting on Facebook that you're sad once doesn’t mean you have depression like a teen saying there going to kill themselves because their parents wouldn’t let them go a party. It is something that has to be diagnosed by a doctor to see if the person experiencing the sadness matches the multiple symptoms such as the long time feeling of this way.

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The most interesting part of the study I found was that even though they did find evidence of people posting depressing statuses did have a correlation with the PHQ-9 tests diagnosing them. They study found that people who didn’t post such statuses also could have depression. “Findings do not suggest that Facebook displays of depression symptoms are an effective method to rule out depression, as many of the non-displayers PHQ-9 scores suggested depression”

My second blog post talked about how Facebook caused Envy when users “surveillance” other users. With my third source, it appeared that people used Facebook to post about their feelings.

A couple more questions arose to me while reading this including: Should Colorado ask institutions to look more into their students Facebook profiles to see symptoms? And Should Facebook release the PHQ-9 test to all of its users so if they wanted to know if they had depression they could have easy access?

Moreno, Megan Andreas, MD,M.S.Ed, M.P.H., et al. "A Pilot Evaluation of Associations between Displayed Depression on Facebook and Self-Reported Depression using a Clinical Scale." The Journal of Behavioral Health Services & Research, vol. 39, no. 3, 2012., pp. 295-304 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11414-011-9258-7.

Facebook Stalking: Should you do it?

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Facebook’s leading cause of depression is envy caused by something we all do too well Facebook stalking . My second source “If Facebook Use Causes Envy, Depression Could Follow” by Nathan Hurst explains a separate study where it was discovered that using Facebook causes envy and that leads to depression. Does that mean Facebook causes envy and I should rename my whole blog after Facebook envy? I’m not entirely sure because Margaret Duffy the professor behind the study says “that how Facebook users use the site makes a difference in how they respond to it.” The article goes into further depth talking about how the study found that students who use Facebook for connecting with friends weren’t depressed but if they were surveillance facebook users then they were likely to be depressed. I suppose that means every girl I know who stalks their exes and old friends are going to get depression? According to this source, that’s quite the case. It also suggests that seeing friends doing better than oneself will make them become envious and then depressed. I think a great example of this is when you see someone in a new relationship and then you’re sad because you want someone to take cute selfies with too. The whole study sums up with the fact that it shouldn’t be possible to get depression on Facebook as long as users post positive things about themselves and that should prevent the envy.

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My first blog post talked about how my first source did research to discover Facebook was a tool where we could find out if youngins had depression because they post symptoms through their statuses. I found with my second source it explained how Facebook actually made people depressed versus depressed people were using Facebook.

I had some new questions arise after reading this source such as: do people always experience depression when they feel jealous or only on Facebook? Why do we actually get jealous looking at others posts shouldn’t we feel happy for them? Does how much we Facebook stalk effect how depressed one might feel?

"If Facebook use Causes Envy, Depression could Follow." Targeted News Service, Washington, D.C., 2015 https://proxy1.aims.edu:2443/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/1650734197?accountid=35907.

Facebook Depression's Pandora's box

Due to the high rise in young adults and teens getting depression psychologists and health advocates are now looking into the world’s #1 social media site Facebook for being the cause behind our youth ending up with suicidal thoughts and utter sadness.

I began wanting to research this topic after coming across some research from the YPAD (Youth Protection Advocates in Dance) from a professor in Colorado Springs who found a correlation with social media and girls self-esteem. It always seems that self-esteem and depression go hand in hand.

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The questions I had about the topic of Facebook depression include: Is Facebook a tool or the cause of Depression? Does Facebook make people feel lonely? Should people stay off of Facebook? I hope to engage some of these questions as I develop my research about how Facebook is attacking the young adults in our community.

The first source that I have decided to take on is “Feeling Bad on Facebook: Depression disclosures by college students on a Social Networking Site” by  Megan A Moreno, Lauren A Jelenchick, Katie G Egan,  Elizabeth Cox, Henry Young, Kerry E Gannon, and Tara Becker. The several doctors explore the study of college students in their area and went through and decided what type of statuses would classify a student as having depression. Their conclusion states “Our results suggest that displayed comments that meet criteria as symptoms of depression are disclosed on Facebook by approximately 25% of college students” (Moreno, et al.) I was curious to why there research was only around Facebook being a tool. All of the research they collected is based around how college students went through there day and posted statuses such as “I had a lousy day” or “I’m miserable.” My main question about their initial question and there finding is should there be more monitoring by health officials to find students who need help because they clearly pointed out that many college students are depressed or even maybe there friends or family reading these statuses. In the conclusion they also talked about how they found that the students they did find depressed posted repeated depressed statuses but only if they got some sort of reinforcement from their friends. The only thing that I find on that is yeah we share our hurt when we have a shoulder to cry on whether it be in real life or on social media.

The article was really helpful towards the start of my research because it is the first study around social media websites being a place where people share their depression like symptoms.

Moreno, Megan A et al. “Feeling Bad on Facebook: Depression Disclosures by College Students on a Social
Networking Site.” Depression and anxiety 28.6 (2011): 447–455. PMC. Web. 28 Oct. 2016.