Study finds Link between Facebook and Depression

A new study from the University of Houston has found that regular Facebook account access could lead to depression signs among some people as they compete with their friends and compare their living conditions to those of Facebook friends.

The research team said that the negative feelings come with the comparison, when the users compare their lives to the virtual lives of their Facebook friends.

Researchers said that many times people present themselves and their experiences in the best possible light warping users' sense of reality.

Katherine Aumer, psychology professor HPU, said, "You have to keep in mind that this is a world presented to me by my friends, it's artificially constructed. Everyone is presenting their best face, everyone is trying to be something that looks good and keep that in mind when you're using Facebook".

KITV 4 spoke with a lot of Facebook users who said that they have felt the comparison blues. Experts have recommended that the users should avoid comparison with others especially on the basis of the image they create with their online profiles, an image which can often be exaggerated.

During the study, the researchers looked at 154 people between the ages of 18 and 42 who use Facebook every day. They gave the participants a questionnaire after two weeks, assessing if they had symptoms of depression and the level of social comparison.

In the analysis, the researchers found that the people who use Facebook on a daily basis many times evaluate themselves against their friends, and thus experience depressive symptoms.

The depressive symptoms that were found in the study were lack of hope for a better future, feelings of sadness and being irritated by mundane things.