The Facebook Effect On Mental Health

[Greg_the_poet]

I've decided that I will get rid of my facebook account, at least for a while. It's become a severe addiction and I feel it's had a massively negative impact on my mental health. It's weird how when we know things are bad for us we still do it anyway, but now I've had enough. It's made me very paranoid and I have driven many friends away from me by the things I have said on facebook, things I wouldn't dream of saying in person.

Has anyone else noticed a negative effect on their mental health due to facebook, or any other network for that matter? I'd like to think I wasn't alone. I bet research has been made or will be made into this matter.

[Epictetus]

I can definitely see what you mean. These days I just go to Facebook to play some of the computer games.

[Hotaru]

Yes. I struggle on and off with FB all the time. I'm not one of those people who gets comments all the time on my posts, though it seems everyone else I see posting does, and that has always gotten to me. It makes me feel more lonely than I would normally. It's so easy to actively ignore people through FB, and you can really feel it when you're the one being ignored. I joined FB because I moved to a different country, and thought it would be a wonderful venue to keep in touch with what my friends and family were doing, but instead, it sometimes makes me feel more isolated. I spent about a year away from it after having become fed up with none of my "friends" caring about anything I posted (and no, it wasn't all depressive, negative, downer stuff people who aren't depressed refuse to tolerate), on top of the fact that I went out of my way to LIKE and comment on many of their posts because I valued them and did not want us to lose touch. I felt like I was overextending myself for people who just plain didn't care...yadda yadda, vicious cycle, etc.

I have trouble with expecting people to treat me the way I treat them, though, so that's a big part of my problem. Still haven't figured out how to lower my expectations and STILL not feel cheated when giving.

[Avenge the suffering]

Well, facebook is a symptom of having friends. I don't have facebook.

[FinallySeekingHelp]

There is a world of difference between being popular on social media sites and having true friends we can depend upon. I think we all know who are more valuable and important to us.

[GAJ123]

That's why I rarely go on Facebook anymore. It's annoying seeing people post stuff about vacations their on or other stuff just for the attention.

[Elicia]

I really have a dislike for Facebook and i refuse to join it.

[The_Unwanted]

I've decided that I will get rid of my facebook account, at least for a while. It's become a severe addiction and I feel it's had a massively negative impact on my mental health. It's weird how when we know things are bad for us we still do it anyway, but now I've had enough. It's made me very paranoid and I have driven many friends away from me by the things I have said on facebook, things I wouldn't dream of saying in person.

Has anyone else noticed a negative effect on their mental health due to facebook, or any other network for that matter? I'd like to think I wasn't alone. I bet research has been made or will be made into this matter.

Alone? Google "Facebook depression", and you'll find plenty of articles about how Facebook has a tendency of feeding people's depressing thoughts.

I find it hard enough just getting through the day without social media. Looking at all the "happy pictures" of people doing wonderful things with other happy people does nothing but increase my depressing thoughts for some reason, even though I've had a small share of fun outings with a few people, this year.

It's also depressing to see people with over 500 friends, that have statuses of all the great stuff they're going to do in the upcomming week, or all their accomplishments, and who have statuses of over 50+ likes, when the only thing I ever receive is notice that my number of friends just went down by one or a few notches, each week. All I do is surf the internet, spend most of my time around no one, and go to a job that I hate 5 days a week. You'd have to be crazy to think that I won't be depressed from keeping up to date with everything that's happening within my list of friends.

I have a tactic to fight off the depressing thoughts facebook brings to me, and it works. I DO NOT pay attention to my wall and what my friends are doing. I only use Facebook to play Angry Birds, to "mark as read" all the annoying little notifications that pop up indicated by that little red number, and seldomly to update my "likes" section. Once I'm done playing my games, I log off. If I pay attention to my wall, I failed to achieve what I needed. There's one problem solved.

Edited October 16, 2014 by The_Unwanted

[The_Unwanted]

I really have a dislike for Facebook and i refuse to join it.

I've known about 5 people who've said the same thing for a long period of time. They're all on it now. :P

[Elicia]

I really have a dislike for Facebook and i refuse to join it.

I've known about 5 people who've said the same thing for a long period of time. They're all on it now. :P

I havent joined fb since its been out...for how many years now? Idk..but i know for a fact i wont join it. Its not my cup of tea.

[The_Unwanted]

A decade this year. But it only became big around 2008-2009.

[GAJ123]

Facebook was originally meant for College Students. Than somehow it caught on with a lot of people & than it became this huge social media thing where everyone started to use it. I still have my profile but I barely go on it anymore. It's just annoying seeing people constantly post things for the attention.

[Fides]

I am on it, but rarely use it. Mostly because my family is so spread out over the country we can at least keep tabs a little bit on each other. Sometimes it bothers me when i see vacations or trips etc. Not sure they are trying to rub it in, because if i took a trip i would probably post a picture or two. Things bother me around the holidays but online i can ignore it. In person when people are talking of parties etc. i cannot really avoid that. Seems to upset me hearing things that people will be doing that i will not.

I think it really affects some people because with social media it takes you seconds to look someone up and see what they are up to, where they have been, what they are doing and who with. People really do not realize how it all is connected and puts them out there.

[scienceguy]

I hate facebook and social media,i started a facebook late at 21 and it is such a pointless website and I cant belive how boring the things are that peope post on there,my friend takes a picture of every social event hes at and I cant stand when he does that it is so obnoious ,to be put on camera,like you need proof to show what you did to show other people.i know one girl at work all she does is post selfies of her self everyday,it so sad to cry out for atteion like that.i do lots of interesting things in my life but I don't feel the need to catlog my whole life on some website,if people want to know stuff about me they can talk to me in real life.The same thing with instagram I hate that kinda stuff,i might delete mine soon,i never use it.