Facebook linked to depression

RE: Facebook linked to depression

Julian Earl — Sun, 12 Dec 2021 23:28:17 GMT

[quote userid="6550" url="~/001/nonclinical/f/life-in-practice-discussions/30088/facebook-linked-to-depression/234191#234191"]I believe FB to be a really dangerous plac[/quote]

Ican see that it might be but it is not all bad! For me, for example it has been a vital source of support and sympathy to be honest as 'i battle deep depression following my severe head-trauma! Due to COVID, facew to face support has not always been possible and believe me, please when I say I need that support. Even to the extent tha my wonderful consultant neurosurgeon at Hull Gerry O'Reilly, who has been very supportive and positive for me quite apart from operating inside myskulla couple of tmes to savemy life, I rely on him being a friend as well. But if it were not for all this contact from friends, family and acquaintances, even chool-friends from 45 years ago I do not know if or how I could have coped. Suicidal?? I do not think so because I love my wife Annika and son Robt too much to ant toinflict that i=on them nor on my recently widowed-sister! But I have come to understand why people might look for that way out in desperation! Speaking/communicating with folk about all tois, like right now in fact has proved utterly crucial! This necessarily includes coms via FB and Ihave not received any negativity there at all! Not so far anyway. So thank you all very much indeed , everybody here on Sorry but in the words of a U2 song...; I'm not broken But I can feel the cracks! You have all helped stopped that progressing any more I think. vetsurgeon.org in recent years for helping to keep me alive as well! Even writing this gives me butterflies at the concept of crumbling completely. Or the worst pain is to feel nothing at all?? Maybe so?

Thanks for reading, everybody!

Julian Earl xx

RE: Facebook linked to depression

Louise Buckley — Sun, 12 Dec 2021 21:52:28 GMT

[quote userid="8858" url="~/001/nonclinical/f/life-in-practice-discussions/30088/facebook-linked-to-depression/234384#234384"]LOL re the boob job competition![/quote]

LOL, I believe my entry (to the Sun Newspaper I think) read something like:

I'm a girl of 14, and my bust is a B, and although I want 'Wicky', I will settle for a D.

*cough* Wicky - was Rick Astley - every teenage girl's dream back then :P

RE: Facebook linked to depression

Louise Buckley — Sun, 12 Dec 2021 21:50:36 GMT

[quote userid="11493" url="~/001/nonclinical/f/life-in-practice-discussions/30088/facebook-linked-to-depression/234381#234381"]

Louise Buckley said:
I was still playing with My Little Ponies at that age so was a tad naive.

I'm not surprised for any kid to do such a thing (I'm sure I've done worse). What astonishes me is that an adult came round to take photographs!

[/quote]

Momma Buckley put paid to that one. My mother is more ferocious than a lion if anyone threatens the wellbeing and safety of her children - despite being a relatively timid woman otherwise!

It shouldn't suprise you - it was pretty typical in 80s England - I would go as far as to say that child and teenager abuse and accepted sexualisation was fairly normal back then.

RE: Facebook linked to depression

Louise Buckley — Sun, 12 Dec 2021 21:47:39 GMT

I think there is and there isn't. Correlation doesn't equal causation as they say, and I don't these are RCT type studies. Perhaps people with poorer local/familiar/in person social networks spend more time on FB, perhaps people with mental health conditions or who find f2f contact with people overwhelming (e.g. some neurodiverse people) are more inclined to conduct their social interactions through social media? Or, *wildcard here* maybe social media actually acts as a buffer that reduces severity of depression that would otherwise be felt by people that have limited f2f social contact but who obtain it from social media? I think there is a lot more work here before anything can really be drawn from this. I would want to read the study itself rather than the news article as they have a habit of not always reporting accurately or with enough detail but from what has been reported I would be cautious in inferring anything from it.

I personally think that FB (the platform that I am most familiar with) can be both beneficial and harmful. Many of my own friends in real life I first met through social media (including VetNurse.co.uk as an original member) and then have kept in contact with, met up at conferences with, etc and it has been a very useful medium professionally for me to interact with other veterinary and behavioural professionals. I do think it rewrites some of the rules of social engagement through - for example, how often do people 'ghost' others in real life if they just decide they are not interested, or don't like you, but FB provides the ability to immediately terminate a friendship through defriend/block and there is no real coming back from that as it is a very clear and final severance. Whereas in real life if a friend is 'getting on your t*ts' a bit, I think most people would just quietly step back and either start to reduce contact, or reflect and talk to the friend to resolve issues.

It is no secret that I was recently kicked out and blocked from a veterinary FB group believed to have done something that I hadn't done, and it is no secret how hurt and upset I have been by this. However, through sharing my experiences, I have found that other veterinary and non-veterinary friends have also experienced versions of this in a variety of FB groups and that, in each case, this has caused quite a bit of hurt for the person blocked. In one case, for example, it was a parenting group. This is something that I think raises interesting discussion peices about the roles of social and professional online communities. In 'real life' these are usually a rich mix of interactions with no one dominant individual(s) that completely controls all other social interactions each person has. Therefore, you have a 'falling out' with one individual and, while it may make things a bit awkward within the immediate social grouping, there is not total ostracism and exclusion. In the case of social media groups, because these are controlled by a very small number of admins who have complete control over who is or isn't a member, the admins have a level of control over the social interactions of each member that is not really mirrored in real life. Thus, people can be completely removed from a social or professional community with absolute severance at any point for any reason or non-reason at the whim of the admin. Where social media is a critical part of that individual's social interactions with peers the impact can be profound. It certainly caused a reactive depression in me as I had been a member of that group for 4 years and interacted daily within it - but I also found from talking to friends who had similar happen in other groups that they also had a similar reaction. There also seems to be a growing body of research evidence to support what I am anecdotally reporting - so social exclusion online has similar impacts to that experienced when a parallel 'real world/non-social media' exclusion happens.

RE: Facebook linked to depression

Jill Butterworth — Sun, 12 Dec 2021 21:38:22 GMT

LOL re the boob job competition! I have to confess to clambering out of a bedroom window to wander the streets at 2am with some friends aged about 13. It's not just FB, its hormones which are dangerous.

RE: Facebook linked to depression

Julian Earl — Sun, 12 Dec 2021 21:34:59 GMT

[quote userid="6550" url="~/001/nonclinical/f/life-in-practice-discussions/30088/facebook-linked-to-depression/234191#234191"]I believe FB to be a really dangerous place. I do have a FB account but use it to get to a very small number of groups of interest (do occasionally look at VV but rarely interact, bee keeping groups etc).[/quote]

RE: Facebook linked to depression

Francisco Gomez — Sun, 12 Dec 2021 21:26:04 GMT

[quote userid="3185" url="~/001/nonclinical/f/life-in-practice-discussions/30088/facebook-linked-to-depression/234380#234380"]I was still playing with My Little Ponies at that age so was a tad naive.[/quote]

I'm not surprised for any kid to do such a thing (I'm sure I've done worse). What astonishes me is that an adult came round to take photographs!

RE: Facebook linked to depression

Louise Buckley — Sun, 12 Dec 2021 21:19:23 GMT

[quote userid="6550" url="~/001/nonclinical/f/life-in-practice-discussions/30088/facebook-linked-to-depression/234197#234197"]

Arlo Guthrie said:
Bob Russell said:
it led to our daughter at 14, leaving by her bedroom window and getting into a car with an unknown 24 yr old male.

I think I remember you saying this before, but it still made me suck me teeth in. My daughter is 14 ... what a terrifying prospect that I might find her climbing out of the window one day, to meet someone she found on social media. I've done my best to stop this happening by telling her that anyone who purports to be a boy or girl her age online, who she doesn't know, is in all likelihood a balding, obese, sweaty, 50 old man with an unhealthy interest in children.

She is now in her early twenties,having had incomprehensible relationships and as mad as box of frogs. We do have two wonderful grandchildren just a bit earlier than we would have ideally chosen!

Not at all what we would have chosen for her (she wanted to go into nursing) but she is living her life not ours!!!

[/quote]

If it is any consolation, my childhood was pre-social media when everything was an ad in the back of the free local newspapers and I still managed to get up to similar. My mum still tells everyone about how she had to stop a pervert coming round to photograph her 12 year old daughter's boobs. I was inspired by the glamorous life of the page 3 model so answered an ad in the back of the local paper asking for glamour models!!! Invited the guy to my house and everything! I was still playing with My Little Ponies at that age so was a tad naive. And I entered a competition for a free boob job. I think I ran my mother ragged with worry throughout my teens (and beyond to be honest).

RE: Facebook linked to depression

Selena Carnell — Sun, 12 Dec 2021 21:11:11 GMT

I have a husband with mental health issues and facebook has been a huge trigger in the past and periodically he still withdraws from facebook, it can be horribly toxic and unforgiving.

I was on many pet pages but had to remove myself from them due to various threats and toxicity towards vets.

RE: Facebook linked to depression

Bob Russell — Thu, 02 Dec 2021 13:57:14 GMT

[quote userid="2100" url="~/001/nonclinical/f/life-in-practice-discussions/30088/facebook-linked-to-depression/234193#234193"]

Bob Russell said:
it led to our daughter at 14, leaving by her bedroom window and getting into a car with an unknown 24 yr old male.

I think I remember you saying this before, but it still made me suck me teeth in. My daughter is 14 ... what a terrifying prospect that I might find her climbing out of the window one day, to meet someone she found on social media. I've done my best to stop this happening by telling her that anyone who purports to be a boy or girl her age online, who she doesn't know, is in all likelihood a balding, obese, sweaty, 50 old man with an unhealthy interest in children.

[/quote]

She is now in her early twenties,having had incomprehensible relationships and as mad as box of frogs. We do have two wonderful grandchildren just a bit earlier than we would have ideally chosen!

Not at all what we would have chosen for her (she wanted to go into nursing) but she is living her life not ours!!!

RE: Facebook linked to depression

George Cooper — Thu, 02 Dec 2021 12:21:11 GMT

Interesting! As I've commented before The Children's Bookshelf is a "Social Media" business and all our marketing effort is carried on Facebook where we have amassed nearly 40,000 followers. I guess our "market" is the *parents* of primary age children rather than the kids themselves. And grandparents, of course.

We've tried to understand Instagram and son does post fairly banal pics and prose there. No way of knowing how successful is at all, whereas FB without doubt increases our footfall. We have had a large number of Brecon FB users who are in Brecon and district Page where I post stuff who have made the 45 mile trek to Hereford and come into the shop. I suppose it helps, too, when we are present in Schools doing Pop-Up Events.

Twitter could be useful but seems to be populated by the chattering inconsequential classes who strive to outdo each other by their supercilious comments that they think are off the wall and funny!. The one advantage with Twitter that I see is that you post once and then it gets (hopefully) re-tweeted ad nauseam, thus doing the hard work of spreading the word for you. Too labour intense for us I think.

On a personal note I have found FB to be a *good* place for interaction and some positivity, and it has helped me during lockdown and hip surgery and recuperation, and currently in the hiatus of the longest sale to completion in the history of house moves. It has been a saving thing.

RE: Facebook linked to depression

Arlo Guthrie — Thu, 02 Dec 2021 10:37:58 GMT

[quote userid="6550" url="~/001/nonclinical/f/life-in-practice-discussions/30088/facebook-linked-to-depression/234191#234191"]it led to our daughter at 14, leaving by her bedroom window and getting into a car with an unknown 24 yr old male.[/quote]

RE: Facebook linked to depression

Bob Russell — Thu, 02 Dec 2021 10:28:45 GMT

I believe FB to be a really dangerous place. I do have a FB account but use it to get to a very small number of groups of interest (do occasionally look at VV but rarely interact, bee keeping groups etc).

The level of spite and bullying language can be unacceptable and it led to our daughter at 14, leaving by her bedroom window and getting into a car with an unknown 24 yr old male. Police cars at the school gate did not seem to be enough to put her off further risky behaviour. Strangely the school seemed quite unperturbed by the event. Thankfully she came to no harm that time!

She believed that the people she was in conversation with became her friends and did not have the street savviness to realise the risks she was taking.

For most FB is a means of communicating with family and friends but for significant groups it presents real dangers.

RE: Facebook linked to depression

Arlo Guthrie — Thu, 02 Dec 2021 09:16:50 GMT

[quote userid="4256" url="~/001/nonclinical/f/life-in-practice-discussions/30088/facebook-linked-to-depression/234184#234184"]Facebook is a nasty, aggressive environment that brings out the worst in people. Vet Voices is a prime example of that.[/quote]

I think that the 'vibe' of any social media platform is to some extent dictated by the space given for you to reply. The shorter the reply, the more black and white, the more polarising it becomes, if for no other reason that you're less likely to include the social niceties when you're pushed for space.

So I would say that forums like these encourage a slightly longer, more considered answer. Facebook is much more knee jerk short forum stuff. And Twitter is the worst of the lot.

In a similar vein, I think Instagram has been associated with mental issues, and I don't quite understand that (except to the extent of making young people feel less confident in themselves as they look through reams of idealised imagery).

I find it a rather gentler environment, because it is just people commenting on photos and videos, which I've found mostly positive or indifferent. Same on TikTok, which I have dipped my toes in for gadgets. I have no experience of Snapchat.

I used to think Facebook was a good way to share stuff with family and friends, and used it for that. But most of mine have now left for Instagram, largely because the only thing they want to share with family and friends are the odd photos.

So now, like you Francisco Gomez, I only really use it to promote my other stuff!

Anyone on Instagram? Do you use it? Do you agree about it being a gentler place?

RE: Facebook linked to depression

Francisco Gomez — Wed, 01 Dec 2021 22:20:50 GMT

I use fb and try to promote my podcast. Btw, hopefully I will be able to release a good episode featuring Julian once I get it edited properly (thanks Julian!). I don't use Tik Tok or Snapchat and I wonder why. I love II and I don't quite get why Im not interested on those platforms. It took me a while to get into IG and I still find it foreign.

RE: Facebook linked to depression

Julian Earl — Wed, 01 Dec 2021 21:13:05 GMT

[quote userid="2100" url="~/001/nonclinical/f/life-in-practice-discussions/30088/facebook-linked-to-depression"]Anyway, who hear uses Facebook, TikTok or Snapchat? And if you do, do you think there is something in this research, or not?[/quote]

T=hanks Arlo, I use face-book but none of the other platforms. I think the risk is related to the amount of introspection involved, or even required to participate , rather than focusing on the real world wherever/whatever that might be for the individual? But hey, what do I know? Apart from being a sufferer myself and struggling to find answers. It iseasy to say, just Focus on the positives in life, but if/when your brain is damaged severely it might not work the same way anymore? I realised that within six months or a good deal less after head-butting the kerbstone at a recorded 30-35mph! For sure, life has not been the same since, and I do depend every, very heavily on family ,friends and other loved ones to keep me going ! Thank you Arlo and vetsurgeon.org for your part in helping me there!! = not sure that is the correct emoticon n but as a thank-you smiley it will do! But I am NOT very keen on the one The one head-banging the wall thank you!!

RE: Facebook linked to depression

Stephen Courtney — Wed, 01 Dec 2021 21:12:28 GMT

Facebook is a nasty, aggressive environment that brings out the worst in people. Vet Voices is a prime example of that.

I don't do much on Facebook any more , and left VV a while ago.

I can quite accept that spending too much time in any toxic environment is bad for mental health