Scientists have intensified efforts to know how Facebook causes depression, and the roles it plays in the degradation of our mental health. Since integrating social media into our livelihood, it has become a very important aspect of our lives. Although Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn have been very important in connecting us with people, they have a very important downside.
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What is Depression?
Depression is a common mental disorder. Identifying depression can be difficult, its symptoms vary in severity. According to Psychiatry.org, some symptoms include:
- You May have difficulty thinking or concentrating.
- Mood swings
- You may feel unmotivated and sluggish.
- Having a feeling of guilt
- Frequently having thoughts of death or committing suicide.
- Can’t concentrate on activities
- Difficulty making life decisions.
- Sleeping excessively
How many people suffer from depression?
According to studies, depression affects 1 in 15 adults or 16% of the population. Women are more prone to depression than men with some studies claiming that one-third of women would experience depression at least once in their lifetime. Even more worrisome is the hereditability of depression. This means that parents can pass down the likelihood of depression to their offspring.
Facebook Depression
Since its launch, Facebook has developed a large following around the world and has amassed the highest number of users of all social media platforms in the world. This is great, it implies that everybody is connected, but there is an overlooked downside to the effects of exposure to the world. A study published in the Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology shows that the increased time we spend on social media is linked to depression and loneliness.
As scientists make more studies, there are increasing revelations on the effects of Facebook and other social media on the mental health of their users. The age group of most concern to scientists are young adults. According to a study published by the Royal Society for Public Health, & Young Health Movement in 2017, the rate of depression among young people is increasing rapidly. The study showed that depression in teenagers and young adults has increased by 70%.
At this rate, we all should be worried about the dangerous effects of social media use. After all, most teens have access to social media. In the United States, up to 92% of teens have access to one social media platform or the other.
How does Facebook cause depression?
Is Facebook depressing? That’s a good question to ask. Facebook has its perks, but some consider it to be a “double-edged sword“. On one side of the coin, Facebook serves as a vehicle for self-expression, meeting new people, and receiving social support. On the other side of the coin, Studies have shown Facebook to lead to anxiety, low-self esteem, and depression.
Comparison with others
Facebook allows personal account users to add up to 5000 friends. This exposes the users to the lifestyle of many people. In reality, we wouldn’t have close or witnessed the lifestyle of so many people, but social media breaks that barrier. It is the nature of humans to compare themselves with other people, whether offline or online. What features are you comparing with yours exactly? You would compare their lifestyle, finances, career, marriage, etc to yours and the list is endless.
Scientists describe this phenomenon as the Social comparison theory. Investigations showed that people who spent more time on Facebook or other social media platforms had a greater circle of followers or friends list and saw more content. Since they spent more time on the platforms, they’d make more judgments about themselves.
Types of social comparison and amplified effect on Facebook
Upward social comparison is the phenomenon of comparing ourselves with people who we believe are better at a task than us. With upward social comparison, it is a mechanism by which we better ourselves by studying those who we think are better than us. When you add social media to the mix, a healthy competitive nature can become disastrous. Seeing people with higher achievements and better livelihoods on Facebook would make me feel bad about myself. I would begin to self doubt my decisions and accomplishments. The more I see people doing better than me the more prone to negative feelings I get.
On the Flipside of the Coin is the opposite of upward social comparison, Downward social comparison. Here, we compare ourselves with people who are not as good as us. We often feel better about our abilities when we find they are people out there doing worse off than us. One typical example is wealth. On Facebook, we might inflate our egos knowing that someone out there is not earning as much as us. For example, I might complain about my poor financial status, but going on Facebook to see stories of people who can’t afford three square meals makes me appreciate my financial problems and makes me feel better.
Waste of Time
Facebook has what we call a timeline, in the timeline you get to see posts made by your friends on your friends’ list, and also pages you follow. No matter how far you scroll down the timeline, it keeps loading more information. Even when you get bored with reading, there are tons of entertaining videos on the platform that would keep you hooked. You would often spend hours scrolling through your Facebook feeds, watching videos, and playing games.
Facebook delivers a lot of dopamine, so you would be delighted to keep scrolling. People can spend as long as nine hours per day watching their screens. People spent more time on Facebook than on any other app. Another new Chinese platform, TikTok has taken the lead. One thing different platforms have in common is the limitless feeds on the timeline.
In today’s world, time is money, the HuffPost reports millennials are spending too much time. Social media is an addictive interface, it could distract you from reality and the life goals waiting to be achieved.
Social Media Addiction
People are increasingly becoming addicted to social media platforms. We get our news updates and other sources of information on places like Facebook. So what’s the link between addiction and Facebook depression? Social media addiction is the compulsive habit of needing to check for social media updates. Scientists have linked studies on addiction to several psychological problems and one of them is depression. Logging into your Facebook account makes you feel happy, this means that dopamine is been secreted into the bloodstream.
The brain would compel you to consume more Facebook content. Your dopamine levels are through the roof when you scroll through your Facebook feed and fall as you log out. This can leave you in a state of unhappiness or depression. Studies have shown that the more you use Facebook, the more likely it’d cause depression.
Lack of Sleep
Facebook causes depression through different channels. One factor that contributes to depression caused by Facebook is lack of sleep. You often spend hours into bedtime scrolling at Facebook feeds.
Because the screen of your mobile phone produces bright blue lights, it triggers your brain to keep you awake for as long as possible. Lack of sleep social media addiction can lead to fatigue, a change in biological sleep clocks, and most likely contribute to depression.
A 2018 study in Britany established a relationship between decreased, disrupted, and delayed sleep. The compounding effect of lack of sleep could lead to physical health issues like nausea, headaches, tremors, etc.
Registered on too Many Social Media platforms
People usually register on several social media platforms alongside Facebook. Psychologists have observed that the constant craving for “everything” causes one to become “lost” on multiple platforms. One person would navigate from one platform to the other. Many findings have pointed out that as people continue to scroll through ‘retweets’, ‘likes’, and ‘shares’ a similar neural network similar to drug addiction forms.
An individual may find Facebook to be an emotional outlet where he gets social validation, a coping mechanism to escape a bad mood and even depression. As the individual increasingly relies on the combination of different platforms, the more likely Facebook causes depression.
TikTok is another addictive platform like Facebook, but unlike Facebook, teenagers dominated TikTok. Aside from mental health, there were some cases where TikTok users took part in a hold your breath challenge which led to the death of a young boy. There are several other practices where a platform played a role in some harmful events.
FOMO: Fear of Missing Out
FOMO is some kind of anxiety many Facebook users are unaware of but plays a role in the development of depression. Users are concerned that they are missing out on the latest trends, music, movie, jokes, etc. Sometimes, when a user logs off for a long period, he/she may return to find out a lot of events have occurred while he/she was away.
The fear of not missing out develops when a user realizes that things happen quickly on social media. FOMO also crosses boundaries with social comparison, when you worry about what others are experiencing on social media at the moment.
Low Self-esteem
Low self-esteem is considered the number one trigger for depression. Unsurprisingly, adolescence and teenagers use Facebook the most and are also the age group most prone to low self-esteem. Understanding how Facebook can trigger low self-esteem helps to identify how it causes depression. Low self-esteem goes hand-in-hand with depression and other forms of mental illness. However, what is the relationship between Facebook and low self-esteem?
The causes of low self-esteem overlap with social comparison. When we compare ourselves with our friends, we may discover that they are doing better than us in one aspect of life. It could be academic achievement, Facebook reputation, financial success, marriage, relationships, etc.
Studies have linked low self-esteem to mental health problems and indulging in behaviors like substance abuse, early sexual activity, etc. with a significant correlation between depression, anxiety, and sexual activity.
Social media can also be a battleground for teenagers who are prone to aggression due to raging hormones. People on the receiving end may develop low self-esteem. As teens battle for attention, they might clash online as cyberbullying. There have been cases where cyberbullying resulted in suicide by the victims.
Does Facebook cause loneliness?
Loneliness is the feeling of isolation, of being exempt from the activities of friends and family, and society. Facebook is a world of its own, and you can find a lot of content on it; Science, documentary, art, music, movie, comedy, etc. However, it is also a place you get to see your friends having fun without you. Having this sense of missing out can cause you to feel alone. You desperately want to experience the fun with your friends but you’re stuck at home with your go-to entertainment center, Facebook.
Researchers have documented loneliness to have a wide range of mental effects. It can span from antisocial behavior to cardiovascular disease and stroke. Overindulgence on Facebook can cause you to feel lonely and may trigger depression.
Does Facebook cause jealousy?
Facebook can trigger you to feel jealousy. Facebook jealousy is associated with social comparison, remember we talked about how we often compare ourselves with people on social media platforms? Seeing your high school or college buddies posting their success, and flaunt their wealth, relationships, adventures, and other incredible deeds can cause you to feel jealous.
Aside from the comparisons with people within our communities, we also compare our lives with that of very successful people. Imagine earning just a little above minimum wage but feeling depressed because you’re not Elon Musk. Even going through Elon’s Twitter timeline, you’d see lots of comments of people making bogus claims about his wealth. That’s all jealousy.
People are fond of posting their achievements on social media, mostly, they do this out of goodwill. Some others post their financial status to bully others, but in both cases, it can spark jealousy in their followers.
Apart from feeling jealous of another’s achievement, some people are insecure about their looks. Honestly, we all would want to look better than our current selves but the point is, seeing someone have what you desperately want can make you feel jealous.
How Social Media Rewires Your Brain
Researchers have observed Social media changes the way some parts of our brain function. With the average person spending 3 hours on their phone every day, the routine can trigger physiological changes in the brain.
Changes in attention
Social media platforms like Facebook can change how we distribute our attention. Facebook’s unlimited content library can “catch” the attention of the brain. Even though Facebook presents information in text, we don’t mind staying glued to our mobile phones for 2 hours straight. Achieving the same dedication for another activity is very unlikely.
We have observed heavy Facebook users perform worse on cognitive tests that involve testing their ability to pay attention or multitask. Some researchers point out that social media is easily accessible and those like Facebook can easily draw your attention and makes you less capable of ignoring distractions in day-to-activities.
On the physical side of things, we have noticed a certain part of the brain which plays a role in maintaining attention to be reduced. The brain is a very adaptive organ, the ability of the brain to make such adjustments is called neuroplasticity.
Changes in brain memory processes
Scientists have made astonishing findings about the effect that social media has on our memory. Facebook can cause depression when you discover that your behavior being on Facebook is affecting your memory. Studies have shown people who are heavy users of social media are also prone to memory loss. Facebook isn’t deleting your memory, no! What happens is, that Facebook is a dopamine stimulant that causes your brain to ignore other details and focus on that which is providing it with “happiness”. In the study, researchers observed that when you share an experience on social media, you are less likely to remember it. They further mentioned that in the long run, people would experience more memory gaps as they continue to use social media.
How Facebook causes depression in youths
Facebook has changed the world, there is no doubt about its impact. Teenagers are most likely conversant with social media platforms like Facebook. While social media is a tool for establishing social connections, it has been implicated in some devastating effects. One of those bad effects is the relationship between some platforms like Facebook and depression in adolescents. Many factors play an important role in the development of depression, the most prominent ones are the fear of missing out.
Adolescents with depression turn to Facebook as relief, but it further compounds the problem. Factually speaking, heavy use (4 hours and more) of Facebook or other social media platform was a predictor of depression.
The fewer time teenagers spent offline, the more likely Facebook would cause depression. This does not imply that the use of Facebook causes depression, researchers, however, warn that using Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, for too long a day would be bad for you.
Is Facebook causing anxiety?
Have you ever attempted to sleep but can’t because you an expecting the bubble notification on your smartphone? You just texted your crush, and she is yet to reply. Now you can’t sleep. There are many reasons Facebook would keep you on edge, it’s okay to be on edge once in a while. However, if you continue to raise your blood pressure over issues on Facebook and other social media, then you’re up for a heart attack. Many people have become suicidal because they cannot handle the anxiety generated from engaging on the dark side of Facebook.
On the web, you should be ready to meet anyone with a completely different belief system, culture, thoughts, and opinions. This unshared view can sometimes lead to very intense and sometimes abusive arguments. God knows I always feel anxious about how well I present my arguments. I’ve realized it’s not so healthy for me and I have minimized such activities.