3.) I think one of the biggest links between social media and depression is FOMO syndrome, or fear of missing out. I know I have experienced this feeling before. In fact it happened the other day. I was scrolling through my Instagram feed and I saw people I know sharing posts from their time at the firefly festival in Dover,DE. After seeing peoples groups photos and videos of Megan thee stallion I automatically thought to myself, “ I should’ve went to that”, “why didn’t I go to that”, and things like “ Do I not know how to have fun?” Just really judgmental statements about myself that are unnecessary..When the reality is my life is completely different from theirs. I don’t know what's going on in their lives besides they went to that festival, or why they may have been able to go. Despite what is true of a situation, most people have experienced those thoughts from time to time. Instagram and Facebook were designed for individuals to share life events and photographs with people so most of the time people are sharing the positive life events and the well done photos not the bad ones. When experiencing these feelings of fomo though we are only going off what we can see.
Unfortunately, when individuals are having a difficult time in life (don’t have access to certain things, having financial trouble, health problems or lack resources,etc.) and they see others doing well, going places, buying lavish things , or a happy moment it can cause the viewer to compare and despair. Compare and despair is another aspect of depression when the individual is constantly comparing themselves to others. They start to feel really low about their situation, appearance, themselves, and sometimes their relationships. For example, If someone is in a bad relationship with their partner and constantly sees another couple post happy photos together it could cause someone to compare and despair and have thoughts like, “ I wish we did stuff like that”, or “oh why doesn’t my partner do that for me” and so on and so forth. I have seen a lot of these things occur with people I know personally. Some of them are depressed in general and then they go on social media to escape, yet it tends to make them feel worse about their situation.
On the contrary, everything I described can be viewed with a positive outlook. If someone sees another person online doing good in something you are also trying to do well it can be very inspiring, or if someone leaves a positive comment on a photo you shared it can boost that person's confidence!. The same thing could be said for fomo. If someone sees someone in their feed take a trip to Jamaica, and that's where the viewer has always wanted to go instead of feeling bad, it could inspire them to actually go there, and encourage them to have experiences instead of just seeing it online. The positive side to fomo is well if they can do that I so can I!
4.) Yes I do. I think social media should take some responsibility for their user's mental health and at least address the negative side effects of their platforms. Like I stated above, people with depression tend to get on these platforms and tend to feel worse about their lives more frequently than not. Even if users are not people struggling with depression like our lecture video said, “more often people who communicate mostly online often feel more stressed and alone” (interpersonal communication in the future world Celine Fitzgerald, May 5th,2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlI2qDO0J6s). More and more studies have come out about how social media affects our mental health but rarely ever hear the people who create social media addressing mental health. I’m just saying individuals who run these companies such as Mark Zuckerberg of facebook have a lot of power and money. They are aware of their control and effects on society's well being..There's no reason these billionaires can't donate to mental health programs or help provide access to mental health professionals. Facebook literally has encompassed every other form of social media it has dating, its own craigslist, event pages and groups, the last thing it's missing is a therapy section. Even though it is odd to seek mental health through the place that causes so many issues, but it certainly is accessible and a lot of people log on to Facebook virtual therapy via facebook might be the move. Maybe Facebook could provide free mental health services to billions of people.
*I know I focused on a lot of the negative aspects of social media in this post but I do believe there are a lot of benefits. So far when it comes to OSU I have been able to chat with some fellow horticulture majors because of facebook, and today I made a facebook group for plant science majors and green majors to connect on I am going to leave the link below.
OSU Ecampus Horticulture and Green Majors
