Facebook depression study: can social media cause depression?

If you're a Facebook user, you wouldn't be able to read this article because it's posted to Facebook. But studies suggest that overusing Facebook and other social media sites can make you depressed. This has led to the question of whether Facebook and other social networking sites can cause depression.

A recent study suggests that facebook can make teens depressed.

A new study suggests that Facebook can make teens depressed. The study was published in the journal Clinical Psychological Science and found that teens who frequently checked Facebook were more likely to feel depressed and have low self-esteem than those who checked the social media site less often. The study included more than 1,700 adolescents ages 14 to 17 from across the US, who completed an online survey about how often they used Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat.

The teens were also asked questions about their mental health, including whether they felt depressed or had low self-esteem. The researchers found that the more time teens spent on social media sites, the worse their mental health was. Teens who used social media for about 30 minutes or more each day had a 27% greater risk of feeling depressed than those who used it less frequently — regardless of how often they spent time on other activities such as watching TV or going out with friends.

Teens who spent more than two hours per day on social media had a 50% increased risk of feeling depressed compared with those who spent less time on these sites.

The most significant association was between time spent on social media and depressive symptoms

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania recently published a study in the Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology that found an association between time spent on social media and depressive symptoms. The researchers analyzed data from 3,035 adults who completed a survey measuring their depressive symptoms, as well as their use of 11 different social media platforms.

They found that the most significant association was between time spent on social media and depressive symptoms. The more time people spent on Facebook and other social media sites, the greater their risk for depression. The researchers also looked at how much time participants spent using each of the 11 platforms, as well as how often they used them.

They found that time spent on Facebook was significantly associated with depression risk, but so were number of times using Twitter and Instagram per week. They also found that frequency of use was associated with increased depression risk for all 11 platforms except LinkedIn and YouTube. These results are consistent with previous studies that have shown associations between social media use and depression, but this is one of the first studies to look at different types of social media use and its relationship to depression risk.

The results weren't surprising to experts, who say the findings align with previous research about the link between social media and depression.

People who use social media a lot may be more likely to experience depression, according to research published Wednesday. The study, which was published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, found that people who logged onto Facebook, Twitter or other sites several times a day were at a higher risk of developing depressive symptoms.

The more time they spent on social media, the greater their risk of depression — up to a point. "We found that the relationship between time spent on social media and depression was U-shaped," said Brian Primack, director of the Center for Research on Media, Technology and Health at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, who led the study.

"So we observed this association with depression starting at low levels of social media use and it increased as people used more." The results weren't surprising to experts, who say the findings align with previous research about the link between social media and depression. A 2017 study by researchers at Stanford University found that heavy users were more likely to report feeling depressed or lonely than those who didn't use it so frequently.

But it remains unclear whether facebook and other social media actually cause depression.

Facebook depression study: can social media cause depression? A new study finds that the more time people spent on Facebook, the more likely they were to feel depressed. But it remains unclear whether facebook and other social media actually cause depression. The study, published in the journal Computers in Human Behavior, looked at how Facebook use was related to depression symptoms in 82 undergraduate students at a U.S.

university. Participants completed an online questionnaire about their Facebook habits and also took a series of tests that measure depressive symptoms. Those who used Facebook more often were more likely to experience depressive symptoms such as sadness or anhedonia — reduced pleasure from normally enjoyable activities — compared with those who used Facebook less often.

This association was especially true for people who said they used Facebook because it made them feel better when they were down or bored. "I think what's important about this study is that it shows us that social media use can be good for you," said lead researcher Dr. Ethan Kross of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor School of Public Health.

"But I think we need to think about how we use it so that it doesn't become detrimental.

In Brief...

The University of Pittsburgh will be conducting a study on the correlation between Facebook, depression and self-esteem. The reason for this study is that there are several studies worldwide that show a rise in depression among college students over the past few years. Depression can stem from a variety of reasons such as death in the family, loss of job and various life situations that could potentially cause depression.

Is it possible that Facebook also causes depression?