Facebook depression - a new diagnostic entity

By Dr. Ananya Mandal, MDMar 30 2011

A new study that appears in the April issue of the journal Pediatrics, published by the American Academy of Pediatrics, speaks of a “new phenomenon” known as “Facebook depression” in which children can become depressed when they compare such metrics as their number of “friends” and “status updates” to those of their peers.

It is not clear that the phenomenon of Facebook Depression is unique to users of the social networking site or whether it represents an extension of latent depression in a child. According to a Kaiser Family Foundation study from last year, children and teens from the ages of 8 to 18 engage in more than seven hours of electronic activity daily.

The idea of “Facebook depression,” which appears to be the idea that some socially isolated young people get depressed after extensive contact with social media, has become so widespread that The American Academy for Pediatrics (AAP) released guidelines that urge parents to ask more social media-related questions in order to assess the mental and emotional health of young people. “Facebook depression,” is defined as depression that develops when preteens and teens spend a great deal of time on social media sites, such as Facebook, and then begin to exhibit classic symptoms of depression.

Gwenn O'Keeffe, co-author of the report that lead to AAP's new guidelines and a pediatrician outside Boston, explained that the digital world that young people now live in is one of the primary outlets that influence their social and emotional development. Constantly seeing updates from their peers online can make young people feel even more isolated and ostracized before the dawn of social media. O’Keeffe is calling for parents and pediatricians to focus more education and attention to teaching our youth about how to handle social networking sites correctly.

“For some teens and tweens, social media is the primary way they interact socially, rather than at the mall or a friend's house,” said O'Keeffe. “A large part of this generation's social and emotional development is occurring while on the Internet and on cellphones. Parents need to understand these technologies so they can relate to their children's online world – and comfortably parent in that world,” she added. According to a recent poll, 22 per cent of teenagers log on to their favorite social media site more than 10 times a day; and more than half of adolescents log on to a social media site more than once a day.