The Facebook Effect: Good or Bad for Your Health?
News-grabbing headlines
like "Facebook Linked to Depression" get all the attention, but other
research shows that social networking can actually make you healthier. Read
this report before you "like," "poke," or
"friend" again.
Is it us, or are news headlines about Facebook’s impact on
our health exploding more and more these days? Considering that 52 percent
of Americans over age 13 now have profiles on the social networking site
compared to 8 percent just three years ago, according to new data from Edison
Research, it’s no wonder there are entire scientific journals dedicated to the
psychology of social networking, and piles of studies analyzing such sites’
effects on our moods, body image, friendships, and marriages.
Here, a deeper look at how all those “likes,” “pokes,” and
status updates are really affecting you and your family’s well-being, and how you
can outsmart some of the potentially negative side effects. Negative conditions
such as “Facebook depression” or Facebook-fueled divorces bear the brunt of the
media blitz, but much of the body of research actually points to positive perks
from Facebook use
Health Benefits of Facebook
Research shows that Facebook can:
Fuel self-esteem. In a Cornell University study,
students felt awesome about themselves after they updated their Facebook
profiles; a control group of students who didn’t log onto the site didn’t
experience such a feeling of excitement. The very act of posting something
about yourself — regardless of what you write — can boost your self-confidence
because you control the image you present to your network of friends, according
to researchers.
Similarly, according to a Michigan State University study,
students with low self-esteem and happiness levels who used Facebook more
frequently felt more connected to friends and campus life than those who logged
on less often.
Strengthen friendship bonds.
In a small study of
heavy Facebook-using young British adults between ages 21 and 29, Lancaster
University researchers found that the site helped cement positive interactions
among friends. Both private messages and wall posts allowed Facebook users to
confide in their friends, surf down memory lane, and laugh out loud, promoting
happy feelings.
Stamp out shyness and loneliness.
Authors say that
for shy people, gleaning information from news feeds and profiles can help
start conversations they otherwise might not be comfortable enough to strike
up. “People who are uncomfortable chatting face to face gain more through their
use of the site,” says study co-author Moira Burke, a PhD candidate in the
university’s Human-Computer Interaction Institute.
In a soon-to-be-published
Carnegie Mellon study, researchers who surveyed more than 1,100 avid
Facebook-using adults found that receiving messages from friends and consuming
info from friends’ news feeds boosted feelings of connectedness, especially in
people with self-described “low social skills.”
Similar benefits hold true for tweens and teens: Australian
researchers who studied more than 600 students between age 10 and 16 found that
communicating online helped improve communication skills for lonely
adolescents, giving them an outlet to talk more comfortably about personal
topics.
However, the phenomenon is more anecdotal than based on
solid science, and some experts suggest that it’s more of a correlation — that
people who are depressed may simply be more likely to use Facebook. “People who
are already feeling down or depressed might go online to talk to their friends,
and try and be cheered up,” wrote John M. Grohol, PsyD, founder and editor-in-chief
of PsychCentral.com on his blog.
Trigger eating disorders. The children of parents who
were aware of what their daughters were viewing online — and talked to them
about what they saw and how much time they spent — were less prone to develop
eating disorders, according to study authors. The more time adolescent girls
spent on the social networking site, the more likely they were to develop eating disorders such as anorexia, bulimia, and extreme
dieting, Israeli researchers recently found. Exposure to online fashion and
music content, as well as watching TV shows like Gossip Girl, were also
associated with an increased risk for eating disorders.
Split up marriages. Facebook was referenced in 20
percent of divorce petitions processed in 2009 by Divorce-Online, a British law
firm. Time magazine reported that feuding spouses use their
Facebook pages to air dirty laundry, while their lawyers use posts as evidence
in divorce proceedings
And while the site certainly makes it easy to reconnect with
old flames and flirt behind the façade of your computer, the potential damage
it can do depends on the stability of your relationship in the first place. “It
all depends on your level of trust in your spouse,” says Kerner. “Have a
dialogue, set some rules. The key is transparency. “He warns that it’s easy to
over-romanticize the past, which can cause people to check out of their current
relationship.
Bottom line: For most people, how or whether Facebook
affects your mood, your health, or your marriage probably depends far more on
your off-line well-being, activities, and influences than what you do when you
log on.
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