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The Reality Of Facebook And Instagram Depression
I think a lot of us have experience with Facebook depression.
(** Raises hand **)
I took Facebook off my phone on Christmas Day 2015; it still ain’t back on there. (I might have to in a week or two to sell some stuff, though. Alas.) I’ve thought about quitting the site like 181 times. Still haven’t. (That’s me being lazy about true connection.) I’ve even written about Facebook depression before, in this post.
If you doubt the veracity or presence of Facebook as a source of depression, though, we’ve got new research.
Facebook depression research
Let’s hit the canon a little bit.
- Excessive use of Facebook reduces the quality of in-person relationships
- Facebook use can erode self-esteem through unfavorable comparison
- Same deal: self-comparison drives depression
- (Related: social media is really great at connecting — and at tearing people apart!)
Most of those links were research papers. Now we’ve got this new thing on Harvard Business Review about “the more you use Facebook, the worse you feel.” This is a longitudinal…
