Too much Facebook makes teenage girls depressed
The big question is: does your teenage daughter co-ruminate? Please check now, as this is a very serious matter.
Researchers from Stony Brook University have declared that excessive co-rumination--perhaps you would refer to it as "chatting with your friends about your problems"--by text, e-mail and on social-networking sites leaves impressionable teenage girls more prone to anxiety and depression.
"There is a wealth of communication technology available to teens today that allows them to talk over and over again about the same emotional difficulties," declared Joanne Davila, the psychology professor who led the research.
The researchers examined the lives of 83 13-year-old girls. No, they didn't do it online. And yes, the girls were accompanied by their parents. They re-examined them after a year.
They concluded that the more the girls discussed their romantic ups and downs with their friends online, the more they became candidates for Prozac. And the more extensive their romantic adventures, the more they wanted to talk about them. With depressing consequences.
"Parents may need to be aware when they are obsessing about a setback and set limits on the discussion," Davila told the Daily Mail.
While I am sure the professor's heart is precisely where it should be, within a millimeter or two, I am depressed by her conclusions. Girls love to talk. If there wasn't Facebook, they'd find another way. Yes, bathrooms, coffee shops, school, you name it.
However, I must take grave issue with the professor's instincts about boys. Her views suggest she might herself be prone to a little seasonal affective disorder at the very least.
"It's most likely they are discussing the game last night or meeting up, but there's a possibility they could start discussing emotional problems more than in the past which would put them at risk," she said of teenage males.
"Start discussing emotional problems?" This view seems miserably sexist. Don't boys talk about their romantic tragedies just as much as girls?
If there wasn't Facebook, they'd be doing it in the pub or wherever else teenage boys hang out. I suspect they have even mastered the art of chatting to their buds while texting other friends on their iPhones.
I know that many harassed, caring parents read Technically Incorrect. This was proved when I wrote about the teenage girl who sent 14,528 texts in one month. Readers had sons who easily beat that monthly tally. So I hope to hear from parents and their views of the depressing influence of Facebook.
Isn't the truth really that we are all victims of the promise of the romantic ideal? The failure to get there makes everyone miserable.
Chris Matyszczyk is an award-winning creative director who advises major corporations on content creation and marketing. He brings an irreverent, sarcastic, and sometimes ironic voice to the tech world. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. 
So then what you or teenage girls focus thoughts on, through Facebook or otherwise becomes very important to their individual or collective destinies. In fact when the world populace gets fixated it might even lead to a global recession, or could it be a DEPRESSION???
The research discussed here examined a SMALL group of teenage girls (a pool 83 is absurdly small for psychological and human behavior research), then reexamined them a year later... and made conclusions about their communication patterns having an effect on depression? Are you kidding me? What else relevant happened in that year that those girls failed to make the researchers aware of? This looks like a huge stretch of the imagination to me, which might lend credibility to future research but certainly proves nothing.
All of us have met someone in our lives who goes though a divorce or nasty breakup and they become like a broken record, telling the story over and over again to anyone who will listen. I agree that getting stuck in this stage and never moving on is not healthy, but why do so many of us women do it? Forget Facebook, this has been going on forever! I think that it must play some part in the processing and healing of emotional pain. Most of all, I think that women seek sympathy.
But is this something Facebook has exacerbated? Don't you simply compare yourself to other supposedly hotter bods all the time?
The never moving on from being a broken record thing is, as you say, complicated and weird. Our heads really do mess us up in style, don't they?
I have a feeling, though, that everyone looks for sympathy, not just women. It's just that men sometimes seek it in different and equally frustrating ways.
Thank you for sharing your perspective. (Can there be any question that you are, indeed, unique and rad? And can there be any question that the perfect-looking people on Facebook actually aren't?)
Chris
I think the most likely explanation for the higher levels of depression among teens who co-ruminate with friends on the Internet is that the teens who are already depressed are more likely than others to co-ruminate online. Depressed people have no energy and stay at home rather than socializing; those are hallmarks of the condition. But socializing on the Net takes a lot less energy than socializing in person, so for a depressed person, it can be a compelling and helpful alternative to extreme loneliness.
Granted, it's not the same as socializing in real life. The theory I developed was that online friendship is enough to survive on, but not enough to thrive on. But it's a lot better than nothing, and I think the depressed teen girls in the study were probably better off on Facebook than they would be without it.
Thank you for your very personal and very wise comment.
The web does give depressed people a lifeline that they never used to have.
There is something so very sad, but at the same time very true, about your last paragraph.
I am really glad you're happier now.
Chris
I don't care how long you talk to someone online,:days, or even years, you never truly know them.
First, these kinds of studies are basically make-work efforts designed to get a psychologist's name out there and to generate news for its own sake. Girls have always had more complex relationship dynamics growing up than boys ever did. I can recall my sisters being best friends with someone one day and being sworn mortal enemies the next. And girls are often far more vicious in their approach to these cycles than boys are. So there is nothing new here at all.
Second, you say that boys "talk about their romantic tragedies just as much as girls" by asking it in the form of a question. You either had a very unique childhood or something else is at play here. As a young teenage boy, I would never have talked about my romantic problems with my friends -- ever! Anyone who has the slightest experience with boys knows that opening that door is an invitation for your friends to start ripping on you with all sorts of jokes.
I mean, seriously, can you imagine this conversation btw two 15 year old boys:
Mike: "Hey Tom, I was really hurt when she broke up with me and now my life seems worthless. I loved her. I don't know what to do."
Tom: "Well Mike, we've all been there my friend. You need to dig down deep and find that inner strength that you know you have, but that you've forgotten. And with my support, and the support of all your friends, you will get through this trying time in your life. I'm there for you pal."
Here on Earth, that conversation would never take place. If it had, Mike would've heard a response more along these lines, "You loser! She's just a dumb B*#&$(@. Use her and leave her dude. Oh, wait, are you serious? Whoa dude, get away from me. I don't want any of your wimp-ass wussiness to rub off on me!"
As far as the Facebook angle, it's usually the people who are most afraid of progress (for whatever reason) that try to rationalize why all of us are being sucked in to the new brainwashing. How long ago was it that the press was pimping article after article, study after study, about a whole generation growing up with "Internet Addiction." Funny, but you don't hear much about that anymore. I suspect there was a time when the press was writing about the serious threat to society posed by that new evil technology that was turning us all into the mind-numbed zombies: The Radio.
Computers are for working and playing games. Do your socializing where it is most helpful, in the real world.
It is as bad, probably worse, than the home schooled kids I have to deal with as college students. They have no idea how to interact with people.
You are so right about gaming. I have a big smile every time I play Race `07 WTCC It`s so realistic. ($6.99 at Target)
Any suggestions on the best racing wheel ? MOMO ? 360 wireless wheel ?
It is artificial contact, and somehow this artificial contact is less rewarding but levies a higher emotional toll when it turns negative.
It is interesting to me that an artificial social construct may yet teach us something as yet unrealized about human nature, but at what cost?
- by lrstarr February 6, 2009 10:15 AM PST
- Hello, I am one of the co-authors of this study, and I want to clarify a few important points. Our article did NOT show that Facebook (or any other technology usage) was at all related to depression. In fact, our study had nothing to do with Facebook whatsoever. Instead, our study focused on a repetitive, negatively-focused communication pattern called co-rumination, and its potentially maladaptive consequences. The quotes in this articles were taken out of context, and please do not read too much into them. Again, our research does NOT show that Facebook is to blame for adolescent depression, and in contrast we believe that attributing a widespread and long-existing disorder to a passing internet fad is both ill-conceived and potentially dangerous.
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(19 Comments)I am happy to provide a copy of the article to the author or anyone who is interested. Thanks for your in our work.
-Lisa Starr, Stony Brook University