A Link Between Facebook & Depression

Hundreds of Millions of people browse and engage on Facebook every day, but a new study shows certain types of users could experience significant mental health issues from it.

Patrick Ferrucci, an Assistant Professor of Journalism at Bradley, co-authored a study that found Facebook use can lead to symptoms of depression. Ferrucci says his study found that while Facebook can be fun, relaxing and completely harmless way to communicate with a social circle and become more informed, it can also lead to negative effects.

"Previous research found a connection between Facebook usage and envy. Those studies showed the more people use Facebook, the more likely they would become envious of people in their social network. Our study went a step further and examined the link between Facebook usage and depression. We found that the more people use Facebook, the more likely they would develop envy, and then that envy, over time and more Facebook usage, can lead to depression" according to Ferrucci.

He goes on to say depression and envy tend to happen more to users who spend time on Facebook surveying other people's pages, as opposed to actively communicating on Facebook.

This study involved surveying more than 700 college students and found those who use Facebook to stay connected to friends and family typically don't suffer negative effects, but some of those who those who engaged in "surveillance use" of Facebook did experience symptoms of depression.

The study was conducted while Ferrucci was a doctoral student at University of Missouri and was published in Computers in Human Behavior.