Did any of you see the story on the news earlier this week that discussed the harmful effects social media can have on teens' self esteem and mental health?
A group of doctors identified "Facebook depression" as a condition that impacts teens who obsess over the site. This is especially true if a teen is dealing with a self-esteem issue.
Their view is that Facebook provides a skewed view of reality with blatent tactics like friends' tallies, status updates, and photos of people who seem to be having a good time. Since this online vehicle provides no context, like body language and facial expressions when people communicate, it is difficult to get a true picture of the social landscape that exists for individuals.
Therefore, their premise is Facebook can make kids who are not popular feel worse, and become more prone to depression. On the other hand, it can enhance social connectedness among well-adjusted teens.
Personally, I feel like this is a bit of a stretch. I think other deeper issues are already present that result in depression, and that the use of Facebook, may exxagerate the condition.
On the other hand, sometimes when I look for comments on my blog and have none, and see others have 4 or 5 responses, I wonder...was my topic interesting? (LOL!) ...but I don't get Blog depression...I digress..
I do think that we, as educators, must be aware of all of the sociological factors that inhibit or enhance our students abilities to learn. We have to take into consideration where each individual is developmentally and behaviorally, and adjust our teaching style, tactics, and tools to the unique needs of our learners.
I'd be curious to get your perspective. What do you think?
Rose, thanks for sharing this story; I wasn’t aware of it. Similar to your view, I too believe presuming that a teen with excessive addiction to Facebook is a channel for promoting depression is a bit of an exaggeration. True, addiction to any social network can be harmful. However, I feel it we are to blame Facebook, what about the other things that teens are compulsive with like too much television. There are plenty of young people that are obsessing over celebrity reality shows. The same goes for music even. Some studies suggest that music is linked to depression in teens, stating that teenagers who spend more time listening to music are more likely to suffer from depression than kids who opt to spend their time reading. Humorously speaking, must of us aren’t prone to “Blog” depression because other people have more posts then we do! LOL
ReplyDeleteIn general, I can understand how some teens with present signs of low self-esteem, and harmfully obsess over the online site could suggest “Facebook depression.” But the key word here is “present” signs. Signs of sadness, withdrawal from friends and family, loss of interest in activities, manifest no matter if a child interacts with Facebook or not. True indeed, Facebook can be the ammunition with a teen in this case. But I have to say, unfortunately, such accessible technology like text messaging and social networking allow teens to disclose and discuss their problems over and over again. This is an area where I feel to prohibit this problem, parents can protect their kids by paying close attention to them, noticing where and how often they're accessing sites, and how long they're spending online.