Facebook Depression Major Threat to Teens or False Alarm

A few weeks ago, a sometimes-visitor to this blog, Cara,  emailed me a link to a news article about this report from the American Academy of Pediatrics on teens and social media. Although it's actually a pretty balanced report, it does include one paragraph on what it calls "Facebook Depression". You can find that report here, but the paragraph in question is below:

Researchers have proposed a new phenomenon called “Facebook depression,” 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. Acceptance by and contact with peers is an important element of adolescent life. The intensity of the online world is thought to be a factor that may trigger depression in some adolescents. As with offline depression, preadolescents and adolescents who suffer from Facebook depression are at risk for social isolation and sometimes turn to risky Internet sites and blogs for “help” that may promote substance abuse, unsafe sexual practices, or aggressive or self-destructive behaviors.

If you read this paragraph carefully, it clearly implies that spending "a great deal of time" using social media causes depression in some teens. Specifically, the "intensity of the online world" may "trigger" the problem.




Whoa. That's serious. I mean, at least three-quarters of teens use some type of social media. And we know that depression is a serious problem (I've blogged about it here and here).  So to say that use of social media can cause depression? Yipes! And remember, the people making this claim are not from Joe Blow's Emporium of Discount Docs, they are the AMERICAN ACADEMY OF PEDIATRICS. Double yipes!

But then some folks took a closer look at the articles cited in that report that supposedly supported this conclusion. Turns out four of the six of them were third party news reports, not original research studies. And neither of the two actual peer-reviewed studies they cited used the term "Facebook depression" or established that use of social media can cause depression. Actually, the studies they cite show it's a lot more complicated than that--for example, only teens with "low quality friendships" show this tendency toward depression with increased social media use. Teens with solid, high quality friendships aren't affected.

You can read an in-depth critique of the "Facebook depression" part of that AAP report at PsychCentral. One of the major criticisms is the basic confusion between correlation and causation. Two things can be related, but that doesn't mean one causes the other. Because of the prevalence of depression in teens, it's likely that many depressed teens use social media. But isn't it possible that depressed teens intensify their use of some social media as escape from the in-person world? Or to cope with the fact that they don't have great offline friendships? In those cases, depression or a predisposition to it would actually be causing increased use of social media in some kids, not the other way around.

The other major criticism was that this report didn't bother to cite conflicting evidence. It reads like ALL researchers have come to this conclusion. But there are several studies that show that use of social media actually has some positive outcomes for teens, including increased access to social support.

Now--if you're interested in this, I do suggest you read the entire report. In my opinion, most of it is pretty well-balanced and raises some pretty good points about teens and social media.

But the take-away message here: be careful, folks. When you see a report like this blared throughout the media, don't take it at face value. If it impacts you, do a little digging. You may be surprised to find there's no scientific consensus, or someone is grossly oversimplifying a nuanced issue, or perhaps the media has just latched on to something sexy and is making more of it than is warranted. All of those seem to be in play here.

Did you hear about this "new condition"? If so, what did you make of it? Is it believable that use of social media could trigger depression in a teenager (apart from cyberbullying, that is)? How about the other way around? Could it help an isolated teen reach out?

And if any of you ever have questions regarding the interpretation of psychological reports in the media or from one of those major professional groups (especially if it relates to children or adolescents), you can always do what Cara did and shoot it my way! I'd be happy to take a look.

This week, for the Sisterhood of the Traveling Blog, Lydia answers the question, "Does each story you write have an overarching theme, and if so, do you think of it ahead of time or discover it after?" And just in case you missed it, here's Laura's post from last week.