Passive use of Facebook leads to depression : Reveals study

People who use Facebook in a passive way, that is, don’t post themselves, tend to compare themselves with others and are in danger of developing depressive symptoms.

Most people use Facebook to share the best glimpses of their lives. However, studies have claimed that self-esteem takes a hit as it seems that everyone is better than them.

“It is important that this impression that everyone else is better off can be an absolute fallacy.” said Dr Phillip Ozimek, lead author of the study.

“In fact, very few people post on social media about negative experiences. However, the fact that we are flooded with these positive experiences on the Internet give us a completely different impression.” He added.

The study published in the journal ‘Behaviour and Information Technology’. The study  was conducted with some questionnaires to know whether using social networks can trigger depressive tendencies.

In the first study, they had two groups of test subjects spend five minutes writing information about the first five people they saw either on their Facebook wall or on the staff website.

A third group skipped this task. All three groups then completed a questionnaire that provided information about their self-esteem.

“It was shown that being confronted by social information on the Internet – which is selective and only positive and favourable, whether on Facebook and on employee websites – leads to lower self-esteem,” reported Ozimek.

As low self-esteem is closely related to depressive symptoms, researchers consider even this short-term effect to be a potential source of danger.

Researchers investigated long-term prospects using questionnaire studies. They interviewed over 800 people about their use of Facebook. Considered their tendency to compare themselves with others. It includes their self-esteem and the occurrence of depressive symptoms.

Findings

There is a positive correlation between passive Facebook use and depressive symptoms. It is evident when subjects have an increased need to make social comparisons of their abilities.

“So, when I have a strong need to compare and keep seeing in my newsfeed where other people are having great holidays, making great deals, and buying great, expensive things while everything I see out of my office window is grey and overcast, it lowers my self-esteem.

“And if I experience this day after day, over and over again, this can promote greater depressive tendencies over the long term.”

In a third study, the researchers used questionnaires to find out whether their findings could also be transferred to other networks. As professional networks work somewhat differently.