Taking Facebook At Face Value

Facebook Depression

It seemed like parents had enough on their plate when it came to raising children, but with another advance in technology comes one more thing parents need to be aware of. "Facebook depression" has become a real illness, and those most at risk are young adolescents.  The teen years can be a crucial time in the development of who they are, and social networking sites like Facebook can both help, but more often, hinder this development. 


The older articles I researched, like this 2009 post on ReadWriteWeb, seemed to think Facebook depression was limited to teenage girls.

Teens and Facebook

 "The Journal of Adolescence, showed that the girls who excessively talked with their friends about their issues had significantly higher levels of depression...they [social networking sites] allowed the girls to discuss the same problems over and over again. This caused them to get stuck obsessing over a particular emotional setback, unable to move forward."


In my opinion, girls' talking to their friends about their problems is just a part of growing up. Who hasn't sat on the phone for an hour to talk about what happened that day and what the latest scandal in the middle school was. But the point of this study is that social networking sites allow them to dwell on hurtful topics longer than is healthy. Later, the author of the study clarified that Facebook was not the focus of the study but rather social networking in general. 


Now the discussion has moved passed teenage girls being at risk for Facebook depression and has expanded to all adolescents. When teenagers spend too much time on Facebook, they tend to show classic signs of depression. Teenagers can spend lots of time viewing hurtful wall posts, finding out people have defriended them (which to a teenager can be devastating), and feeling that everyone's lives seem to be somehow of better quality on Facebook. Because they have access to Facebook all the time, this can lead to anxiety and not getting enough sleep which pediatrician Rana Pascoe says, in this article in the Baltimore Sun, can lead to depression. 


"Sometimes just even their status, if they are involved with someone or not involved with someone or I'm unfriending people, you know I'm mad at you so I'm going to unfriend you so that can lead to hurt feelings," Dr. Pascoe said. "Especially for younger kids."

Facebook Depression

If adolescents are exposed to such negative experiences with social media they may never be able to see its benefits. Moderation, as it is with many things is key. Parents need to monitor how much time their child is spending on Facebook and determine a healthy amount of time to be online. Also, parents need to watch for changes in moods, sleeping and eating habits and also a change in friends to detect any possible signs of Facebook depression.