Even depression can be caused by excessive engagement with Facebook, especially when our friends' posts are causing us envy.
That's it Facebook monitors our Internet moves. A new privacy policy established by the company allows the website to record your activity even when you leave the social networking site. Changing the privacy policy allows the website to gather data from your activity across the Internet while collecting the information that you and your friends post on. According to the British Independent article, after collecting all this information, Facebook distributes them to other sites, such as Instagram.
Admittedly, the company had announced in November that it was going to enforce this change, and today it claims that the users by e-mails. At the same time it opened a type of public dialogue about the new policy, allowing users to discuss this topic at length. Today anyone user if he wishes, he can change the new privacy policy by selecting the relevant settings.
Also, an important American study rings the bell for Facebook by suggesting that using the social networking site can cause envy in users, a feeling that can turn into depression.
Admittedly - reports a Telegraph article - millions of people connect to Facebook every day. As they claim researchers of the University of Missouri who conducted the study, this activity affects them emotionally more than they themselves recognize.
Professor Margaret Dafi, who co-authored the study, notes that Facebook's way of using the site plays a key role in how they react to it.
"Facebook can be a good job, a fun and healthy activity, since of course users use it to stay in touch with family members and old friends and to share the important and interesting aspects of their lives. However, if used to see how wealthy an old friend is or how happy he is in his relationship, things that can be jealous, Facebook can even lead to the appearance of clinical depression. "
For the needs of the study, the 700 scientists have answered the young users of the site. It has been found that those who have used Facebook to watch how friends and acquaintances live in their lives say more often that they feel depressed. On the contrary, those who used the website simply to stay connected with friends and acquaintances did not show any negative reactions.
The comparison
According to the researchers, the posts about exotic vacations, expensive cars and beautiful homebut also happy "cinematic" families awaken in us jealousy, which usually develops into depression. As Professor Duffy notes, "We found that if users feel envious of the way their friends live or their activities, then they usually complain of some symptoms of clinical depression. Facebook can be a very positive activity for many people, but not for those who use the site to compare how they and their friends live."
The research is published in the Computers in Human Behavior.
