Too much Facebook makes all teenage girls depressed.

Chris Matyszczyk wrote a CNET article, disagreeing with a study done by Stony Brook University, which claims 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.

He claims that if it wasn’t Facebook it would be “bathroom gossip”, text messages, phone calls, slumber parties… you get the picture. Having never been a teenage girl myself, I can’t really attest to this (hopefully Chris cannot either?), but it seems to me that the persistent and “open” nature of Facebook goes beyond text messaging and slumber parties and is asking for trouble. Not just for teenage girls or even the female gender – I think it can be a problem for anyone.

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It got my thinking about Facebook and some of its perceived effects on my relationships and the lives of those around me. All too often I’ve seen people share things on Facebook that I wager would never be said in the confines of a face-to-face conversation, a phone chat or even an email. The impersonal nature of “the internets” (lol) gives people a feeling of safety and boldness that often leads to unguarded honesty that isn’t (always) healthy. How easy is it to forget that what you’re writing on Jimmy Jimmerson’s wall – woah, I just googled Jimmy Jimmerson and he does, in fact, have a Facebook account!!!1!one! – is viewable by not only Jimmy’s ex-girlfriend Janey, but also his parents Mr. and Mrs. Jimmerson (who happen to be cool enough for Jimmy to accept a friend invite from), not to mention your boyfriend who you didn’t think ever checked his status updates. Sure, you only said “Thanks for folding my book cover in Math class today”, but they all know what you really meant! (lol)

Freeing? Totally. Fun? Yeah, sure. Usually Harmless? Prob’ly. Dangerous? Can be.

I don’t think that Facebook (alone) leads to depressed teenage girls because they’re wallowing in each other’s repeated, persistent misery – I think they (and others) are depressed because they’re forming intimate and overly-honest relationships with people that they have little (or no) physical contact with. Despite all of our technological advances we are still (hopefully always will be) physical beings. Understand that I have absolute no science to back this claim up, but I think that excessive emotional connections without any of the physical connections that go along with them is unhealthy. Perhaps the depression is a physical reaction to emotional over-stimulation?

Thoughts?

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