Heavy Use of Social Media Linked To Mental Illness

[djAdvocate]

yeah.  guessing some of you already know this:

www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2018/05/18/how-heavy-use-of-social-media-is-linked-to-mental-illness

it's a little hard to read, so let me boil it down for you.  high use of FB, Snapchat, Instagram and Twitter result in a higher degree of issues associated with Depression, Anxiety, Body Image, Bullying, Fear of Missing Out, Sleep Deprival and to a lesser degree, Loneliness.

speaking personally, i have felt almost all of those things when i was a bigger user of FB, but i have NOT used the other services extensively.  and, based on this, i am not going to start. 

[OldCoyote]

Too Late!!

[djAdvocate]

May 21, 2018 0:06:01 GMT -5 OldCoyote said:

Too Late!!

for who?

[kadee79]

I don't use any of those, does that mean I'm good to go?
I do spend too much time on this board & another one though...I will be cutting down since the weather is better now.

[djAdvocate]

May 21, 2018 0:14:44 GMT -5 kadee79 said:

I don't use any of those, does that mean I'm good to go?
I do spend too much time on this board & another one though...I will be cutting down since the weather is better now.

i was thinking of a certain high profile individual who uses Twitter too much. 

[tallguy]

Granted that I am not a 14-24 year-old Brit, but I don't use any of them.  Must be why I am such a well-adjusted observer of the human condition, and why I can so clearly see the failings of heavy users.  Like, oh let's say, the president for one. 

[djAdvocate]

Brittan and the US have more in common than most nations.  and yeah, i doubt ANY of us are 14-24, but i might be wrong. 

[Shooby]

Maybe the mentally ill just gravitate towards social media so the cart before the horse thing?

[Tennesseer]

That explains all the Conservative Treehouse links.

[giramomma]

May 21, 2018 6:35:51 GMT -5 Shooby said:

Maybe the mentally ill just gravitate towards social media so the cart before the horse thing?

I don't know that that explains everything. I happen to like NAMI for mental illness.

They say about 1 in 5 have a mental illness.

According to here: About 81% of the us population uses social media.

www.statista.com/statistics/273476/percentage-of-us-population-with-a-social-network-profile/

I'm going to go out on a limb and say sure, the mentally ill may gravitate towards social media. But that's not the only reason why people on social media often seem to have a poorer time of it.

And, also, while I DO think that the DSM misses the boat sometimes on mental illness diagnosis, I'm pretty certain bullying, having a poor body image, and FoMO are not mental illnesses (yet).

[thyme4change]

I think this site gave me emotional problems. I'm medicated now. 😉

[djAdvocate]

May 21, 2018 6:35:51 GMT -5 Shooby said:

Maybe the mentally ill just gravitate towards social media so the cart before the horse thing?

not my experience.  but that is anecdotal.

[djAdvocate]

May 21, 2018 9:02:27 GMT -5 giramomma said:

May 21, 2018 6:35:51 GMT -5 Shooby said:

Maybe the mentally ill just gravitate towards social media so the cart before the horse thing?

I don't know that that explains everything. I happen to like NAMI for mental illness.

They say about 1 in 5 have a mental illness.

According to here: About 81% of the us population uses social media.

www.statista.com/statistics/273476/percentage-of-us-population-with-a-social-network-profile/

I'm going to go out on a limb and say sure, the mentally ill may gravitate towards social media. But that's not the only reason why people on social media often seem to have a poorer time of it.

And, also, while I DO think that the DSM misses the boat sometimes on mental illness diagnosis, I'm pretty certain bullying, having a poor body image, and FoMO are not mental illnesses (yet).

i agree with giramomma here.  this same association is made with drug abusers: that they tend to gravitate toward drugs.  and sure, that is true to some degree.  but MOST people experiment with drugs and have no propensity toward abusing them.  it is a problem associated with a subpopulation that has a high propensity toward abuse.  i think mental illness is probably similar, though admittedly, i have less experience with it. 

[djAdvocate]

PS- i don't think the OP is saying that the "negative" things listed ARE mental illness, only that they are ASSOCIATED with mental illness.  IE- you are not NECESSARILY mentally ill if you have insomnia, but many mentally ill people suffer from it.

[resolution]

This one is indicating a correlation between current use of Facebook and future loss of well-being. Which is a bit ironic when I consider that setting up a bunch of social media accounts was required for my master's degree program.

pdfs.semanticscholar.org/78aa/46a7d47e58d94c36e46e82dac7c7bfaae8f9.pdf

The associations between Facebook use and compromised

well-being may stem from the simple fact that those with compromised

well-being may be more likely to seek solace or

attempt to alleviate loneliness by excessively using Facebook

in the first place. However, the longitudinal models accounted

for well-being measures in wave t when including Facebook

use to predict the well-being outcomes in wave t + 1. Also, in

our final models, we included degree (or real-world friendship

counts) to adjust for this possibility, and the results remained

intact. This provides some evidence that the association

between Facebook use and compromised well-being is a

dynamic process. Although those with compromised wellbeing

may be more likely to use Facebook, even after accounting

for a person’s initial well-being, we found that using

Facebook was associated with a likelihood of diminished

future well-being.

[resolution]

One thing that has really struck me on Reddit is how many people on there are currently in therapy for anxiety and depression. I had just assumed it was a millennial thing, since most of the people on there are millennials, but it may be a social media thing instead. Their financial independence subreddit also has people occasionally comment on how depressed they get when they visit the Boggleheads.

[happyhoix]

I had heard one explanation for why people get depressed when looking at Facebook is that people see how fabulous other people's lives are and think their life is shabby in comparison.

I think I must have the Old Lady facebook because my feed is mostly grandkids and my extended family, none of whom are especially talented, attractive or rich.  Not that we aren't stellar in an average way, but we're average. And there are cat videos. The only thing I see on Facebook and wish that I had was the food, when people sometime share recipes. Especially those chocolate porn recipes, with gooey molten chocolate.  I can't even muster envy for the relatives who cruise all the time, because I've been on a cruise, and meh. 

Maybe I need some exciting new friends who can post photos of their trip up Mt Everest or into the Amazon basin.

 

[busymom]

I find the number of vacations posted on Facebook to be a bit annoying.  Let's face it, it IS bragging.  Like, "look how awesome my life is right now".  Having said that, I DO like getting birth announcements, and stuff like that.  I suppose I see Facebook sort of like one of those bragging holiday newsletters.  And, it's always the same people doing the bragging.  

[resolution]

I stopped going to Facebook when my sister in law started posting random anti-abortion pictures of dead babies, in between my friends' cat pictures. I have heard she has moved on to Instagram so it is probably safe to go back but it seems like i am better off staying away.

[tallguy]

May 21, 2018 13:50:45 GMT -5 resolution said:

One thing that has really struck me on Reddit is how many people on there are currently in therapy for anxiety and depression. I had just assumed it was a millennial thing, since most of the people on there are millennials, but it may be a social media thing instead. Their financial independence subreddit also has people occasionally comment on how depressed they get when they visit the Boggleheads.

Just went over to look at Bogleheads.  Still not depressed.  I would get on Facebook and the other services to try and fit in with the rest of the average losers in the world, but I've never been that keen on being average.  Oh well.  Guess I won't bother.   

[Tennesseer]

May 21, 2018 21:06:58 GMT -5 resolution said:

I stopped going to Facebook when my sister in law started posting random anti-abortion pictures of dead babies, in between my friends' cat pictures. I have heard she has moved on to Instagram so it is probably safe to go back but it seems like i am better off staying away.

You can block her from postng anything on your Facebook page.

[happyhoix]

I thought I was going to have to block my SIL during the election, when she kept reposting all those anti-Hillary rants (which were probably Russian posts). Then there were all her celebratory pictures when she attended the inauguration.

For some reason, SIL hasn't mentioned Trump or the GOP in a long time now.   Back to kitten videos and the grandkids.