20 May 2016

Facebook Depression – it’s not a myth

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Whilst people are engulfed in other people’s daily activities, it is inevitable that they start comparing someone else’s lives to their own.

We have all been told before not to trust everything you see or read about on the Internet, but has anyone told you not to believe that everyone’s lives are happy and fun, except yours?

Facebook depression is when someone sees a new update from a friend on their Facebook account such as a status update, wall post, photos and videos, which make them feel unpopular.

A study from the University of Houston found that people who use Facebook more often tend to have more depressive symptoms as it was linked to people comparing their lives to others.

There have been an increasing number of people diagnosed with depression that is linked to social media. This includes low self-esteem and bitter jealousy, where people are feeling as if other people are living a better life than they do, such as seeing people posting photos and videos of their latest holiday trips, engagement, wedding, welcoming the birth of a new baby and many more.

Facebook friends’ list and status updates can have a negative impact when they are comparing themselves to each other and find they are lacking, especially when they are able to count the number of friends someone else has on their Facebook compared to their own or someone is in a relationship whilst they are still single.

Other instances that can affect someone’s feeling of self-worth include posting a status and worried if people will “like” their post or if people will comment. As a result, people may feel depressed from gaining their sense of self-worth from other people’s approval or “likes”.

Should people steer clear away from social media?

Facebook was not created to make people depressed about their lives; it is about connecting with your friends and loved ones, who you may not be able to see or catch up regularly due to other commitments or living in different locations.

You should feel good from using Facebook, however if you begin to compare your life with others, you may have a distorted view of their lives as you are only seeing a little part compared to the many other things that is happening, leading you to depressive symptoms as you feel you do not measure up to them.

If this is the case for you, then it’s time to step back away from these sites and remember that not everyone posts every little detail about themselves on Facebook. People generally just post highlights in their lives, which are the posts and photos you see on Facebook, but that’s the best they can show.

It is also important to educate teenagers and children not to read too much into other people’s lives that they start comparing every details of their own to others and only focus on how to live their life to the fullest.


Life is 10% of what happens to us and 90% of how we react to it
Dennis P. Kimbro




Being brought up in a typical Chinese family in Australia, Vivian takes pride as an ABC (Australia-born Chinese) where she happily embraces both the Chinese and Australian cultures. 

In high school, Vivian wanted to become a fashion designer, however she has developed a passion for running events after working backstage for multiple live shows. Prior to starting at Akolade, Vivian worked 4 years in the wine industry and she misses the wine tasting sessions and openly drinking on the job. As the Marketing Coordinator, Vivian enjoys using her creativity to design unique and fun campaigns for each event. In her spare time, Vivian loves to spend time with her two adorable pets; a cat and a dog.



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