Report: Five Ways Facebook Can Be Bad For Your Mental Health

Everybody gets a cookie except you

(Mod: As you know we're not the biggest Facebook fans around. For a number of reasons. And we do enjoy pointing these reasons out to those who are fans. Call it a weakness, or an addiction to buzzkill. Plus we post here every day so we do have to come up with something. But I should also mention that when I pulled this Digital Trends.com article up earlier this morning for reposting here on The Tattler, I was disturbed to receive a pop up asking me to "like" it on Facebook. That felt like a betrayal to me. But we've decided to go forward with this post anyway. It is far too late to turn back now.)

Report: Five Ways Facebook Can Be Bad For Your Mental Health (Digital Trends.com - link)

These days, Facebook is just a part of life. In December 2011, the preeminent social network boasted more than 845 million active monthly users, with 483 million of those using the site daily. And a 2011 study by market research firm Nielsen shows that the average Facebook user spends four times as many hours on the network each month as he or she spends on any other site. Like getting too little sleep, drinking, smoking, or sunbathing, the increasing number of hours we spend on Facebook is surely affecting our health, right? Below, five ways experts believe Facebook could be hurting our mental health.

1. Eating disorders
Pinterest isn’t the only social network that makes people feel bad about themselves. According to a recent survey of 600 Facebook users, ages 16 to 40, by the Center for Eating Disorders at Sheppard Pratt (link), more than half say that seeing pictures of themselves and others on the site “makes them more conscious about their own body and their weight.” And it wasn’t only females who felt the burn; 40 percent of male respondents said they comment negatively about their own bodies on Facebook photos. On top of that, 32-percent said they feel “sad” when comparing photos of themselves to pictures of their friends. And 44-percent said they wished they had the same body or weight as their friends, when looking at photos on Facebook.

2. Low self-esteem and depression
This falls in the same vein as poor body image: an increasing number of studies (link#1, link#2, link#3) have found that posts by our friends make us feel worse about our own lives. This is due to the fact that we naturally compare ourselves to our peers. If the people around us are posting happy, significant life accomplishments (which happens every day, if you have a lot of friends), then we feel worse about our lack of having anything good to report. This is exacerbated by the fact that people usually choose to post good things about their lives, rather than the bad things, which skews our perception of reality even further. Experts suggest limiting the number of friends you have on Facebook, and de-friending those who like to brag about their “amazing” lives the most.

3. Psychological disorders
In addition to making us depressed, Facebook may also be making our kids crazy — literally. Dr. Larry D. Rosen, a professor of psychology at California State University, Dominguez Hills, last year released a study (link) that concluded that teenagers and young adults who spend much of their time on Facebook are at a higher risk of developing a cornucopia of psychological disorders, including mania, paranoia, aggressive tendencies, and antisocial behavior. Moreover, Facebook may add fuel to the fire in those teens who display narcissistic tendencies, by allowing them to broadcast their unhealthy self-love 24/7.

4. Stress
Posting “happy birthday” on your friend’s Wall may be less stressful than actually attending a party or even sending a card. But that doesn’t mean Facebook is making your life any easier. Dr. Kathy Charles of Edinburgh Napier University released a study early last year (link), which showed that, of the 200 people she surveyed, a majority felt some type of stress in relation to the social network, and 12-percent said the site makes them feel anxious. Those with a large number Facebook friends experienced the most stress. Dr. Charles also found that many become stressed at the thought of missing out on something good posted to the site, a phenomenon now known as the “fear of missing out” (link), which has become so widespread it has its own acronym (FOMO).

5. Addiction
Up there with sex addiction, and good ol’ fashioned Internet addiction hangs a new monkey on our backs: Facebook addiction (link). Researchers at the University of Chicago recently analyzed more than 8,000 reports of everyday desires from 250 participants, and found that quitting Facebook (and Twitter) was more difficult than giving up cigarettes or alcohol (link). This follow a study of Web search analytics data by marketing firm The Internet Time Machine, which shows that the term “Facebook addiction” has become one of the most searched-for terms in this category, (with things like “alcohol addiction” still ranking higher on the list). As with stress, Facebook addiction has been linked to FOMO.

(Mod: I struggled with FOMO at one time, but then I realized I'm much happier just staying home. Here is another matter for you today. Has Facebook been spying on you for the government? With so many Internet entities having been exposed for narcing to the Feds about their trusting customers, perhaps it was only a matter of time before the big dog was dragged under the lights for its moments of retribution and shame. Just for the record, The Tattler has received no requests from any government, either large or small, for information about those who post here.)

Facebook Does Prism Damage Control with First Government Request Report(CIO.com - link)

In the wake of citizen backlash against tech companies who play nice with surveillance agencies, Facebook is divulging for the first time government requests for user data, citing its "core values" of "transparency and trust" (link).

Facebook general counsel Colin Stretch in a Tuesday blog post gave a country-by-country overview of government requests during the first half of 2013. Not surprisingly, the U.S. topped the list with 11,000 to 12,000 requests pertaining to more than 20,000 user accounts. Facebook was required by law to fulfill 79 percent of the federal government's requests by providing at least some data.

The report offers a first look at the volume of requests Facebook deals with, but not much in the way of detail. Stretch said Facebook hopes to be even more detailed in future reports, but with national security on the line, it seems unlikely that the social network will be able to disclose information about specific requests.

"We hope this report will be useful to our users in the ongoing debate about the proper standards for government requests for user information in official investigations," Stretch wrote. "And while we view this compilation as an important first report--it will not be our last. In coming reports, we hope to be able to provide even more information about the requests we receive from law enforcement authorities."

How many countries are using Facebook to prevent terrorist attacks and how many are seeking out activists? That's a question Facebook might not be able to answer. Countries in the hot seat for squashing citizen protests, like Turkey and Egypt, put in some of their own requests, but Facebook often shot them down--the network fulfilled none of Egypt's requests and less than half of Turkey's.

India ranked second behind the U.S. with 3245 requests for 4144 user accounts. Facebook complied with half of the country's requests.