Facebook and Depression

Facebook And Depression - Some years earlier, a brand-new form of communication has actually overcome the globe by expanding substantially the method people take pleasure in information and also amusement: television. Back then tv was a huge step for mankind, even if there were people who had a various viewpoint. The poet and also dramatist TS Eliot, as an example, specified: "It is a medium of amusement which permits countless individuals to pay attention to the very same joke at the same time, yet however, they remain to be alone".

Facebook And Depression

Now you could use the exact same reasoning to socials media, specifically Facebook, which in 10 years has actually gotten to 1.3 billion subscribers, fifty percent of which passes approximately 18 minutes logged. Facebook links people all over the world. Nevertheless, the influence of this social media is not as positive as you could assume.

Facebook And Depression


An increasing variety of studies suggest that the possibility to be "attached" with other individuals does not always imply to be better; as a matter of fact, it can adversely impact our state of mind, due to the fact that many individuals are attached but still are alone.

Hereof, psychologists of the University of Michigan and also College of Louvain, have made a decision to strengthen the relationship in between making use of Facebook and also a gratifying life. These scientists asked a team of individuals to state 5 times a day for two weeks on their emotional state. So they located that the use of Facebook is associated with a bad health. They additionally found that people claim they really feel worse after checking out the social media network, not before.

Friendly World Syndrome: Everyone seems to be more happy and successful than us
Why using Facebook can affect our mood making us really feel worse? These psychologists suggest that one of our basic needs is the social call. Social connections are an incredible resource of comfort. But the social media network does not offer us the kind of social get in touch with we need to remain healthy and balanced.

One possible description could be the easy envy. Nevertheless, Facebook permits us to see the success of individuals with whom we have actually shed get in touch with. Additionally, in a specific sense, this social network has actually become a collection of bluster, a place where people gather their successes at the office as well as in their individual life, upload photos of their fantastic family, of the pricey automobile or the extraordinary trip.

As a matter of fact, this phenomenon has a name: the "friendly world síndrome", which refers to the tendency to believe that all of them have a far better life than us. This sensation is the outcome of a result identified by sociologists in 1970 called the "significant world síndrome", according to which, people who saw a lot of physical violence on television believed the world was much more terrible than it truly was. Something similar occurs to us with Facebook, taking a look at images and updates, we think that the others are better than us, which minimizes our contentment with life and may even trigger us depression.

Popularity Contest: The friendship paradox
There could be one more trouble underlying the discontentment as well as unhappiness that creates Facebook, the feeling that everyone is a lot more prominent than us. It is called the "relationship paradox" because, as a rule, our good friends have a tendency to have even more close friends than us.

This phenomenon is due to a basic mathematical factor: if you're an autist, there is a great chance that among your close friends there are lots of extroverted individuals, which subsequently have many friends. It is a prejudice that ends up being a lot more evident in social networks due to the fact that with a glance at the account we can know exactly how preferred our pals are.

This discovery could distress many individuals making them think that they are not deserving of interest or love from their pals, as well as this might trigger clinical depression.

What would happen if you stop using Facebook?
This concern is what some psychologists of the Happiness Study Institute of Copenhagen asked themselves, and to respond to it have actually recruited greater than 1,000 customers of this social network. Fifty percent of them remained to use the internet daily, the other half has actually stopped entirely.

It is noteworthy that after only one week, 88% of people that have quit using the social network reported feeling better, less mad, much more ecstatic, less clinically depressed, as well as much more completely satisfied with their lives. Similarly, it was noted that their tension level has actually decreased by 55%.

These psychologists have likewise found that we have a tendency to focus on what others have. The study revealed that 5 out of 10 individuals covet the fantastic experiences that others upload on the social media, 1 out of 3 individuals covet the evident joy of others, as well as 4 of 10 envy the evident success of others.

Obviously, isn't Facebook that is lowering our complete satisfaction with life as well as makes us feel negative, yet our tendency to face and the cognitive biases that appear during the process. Yet the fact stays that the way in which this network is structured significantly assists in such contrasts.

As a result, the best option is to concentrate on our reality, beyond the digital profiles, and also avoid contrasts that do not bring anything to us. We have to begin to concentrate on what we really require, instead of on what others have.