Is Facebook Bad For Our Health?

Pretty much this whole article, Negative Social Comparison on Facebook and Depressive Symptoms: Rumination as a Mechanism, by Brian A. Feinstein is about how we spend too much time on social media sites looking at other peoples lives and bodies and what they are doing every minute of every day and then portraying all those thoughts onto ourselves and comparing our situation to theirs.  Facebook, and many other social media sites, give you many opportunities to cause you to look down on yourself and think negative things about yourself that could potentially lead to depression, but it also have many factors that can boost your self esteem and have you thinking positive thought.

At one point in the article they bring up how Facebook might lower your self-esteem or raise.  If someone saw a friend getting married, a friend who has the most friends or a friend who got a good job they will tend to look down on themselves and compare themselves to that person which can lead to negative thoughts if they feel that they are not accomplishing anything.  On the other hand if they are the friend that is getting married or the one who got the best job compared to all their other friends it can raise your self confidence and have you thinking more highly of yourself.  They also brought up that this happens if they are looking at someone they think is more attractive and looking and someone they think is less attractive.  It's all about self-comparison which I am guilty of and happen to do a lot.  It's very easy to do when social media is always right there in your pocket.   The article goes on to talk about how people tend to exaggerate how happy they are on Facebook and people see them as "happier" and have "better lives".  This is what made my mom delete her Facebook because she just couldn't handle the constant updates by friends and family about what they are doing every second about how "exciting" their lives were and how everything they did was perfect and Facebook worthy.

Self-comparison is the number one factor Facebook gives you the opportunity to do.  It can be the cause of your negative thought and depression or it could be the cause of your boost in self-esteem and confidence.  It's just human nature to compare yourself to others when you are presented with information about them.  Spending too much time on social media takes away from the time you could be spending on bettering yourself rather than wishing you were like someone else.