Social media is a place where news of hookups, breakups, gaining and losing jobs, and arrival of new life and death make a person overwhelmed with different emotions. Where social media websites such as Facebook help people to stay informed of happenings in the lives of their friends, families and acquaintances, they leaves you emotionally exhausted at the same time. This enchanted world has the ability to stir up emotions of jubilation, excitement, happiness, anxiety and sadness.

Researchers are of the opinion that social networking causes depression among teenagers. Explaining the problems with social networking, they said that while using different social websites teenagers were subconsciously comparing themselves with online friends, which evoke sense of achievement or dejection among them. That is why people have loosely coined a term “social media depression” to casually define the depressive emotions associated with excessive use of social media.

Reasons for depression

In absence of any authentic research on this issue, some mental health researchers have unofficially discussed the reasons for depression caused by social media’s use among teens:

• Teenagers are worried about their popularity on social media websites like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tumbler and MySpace. Kids are constantly trying to outdo others to get more likes, comments and followers, which increases anxiety and insecurity among them.
• Teenage is the time of being reckless. Same attitude is displayed online, when teens post or comment something which they may regret later. This may become cause of their stress which leads of depression and in extreme situations, suicide.
• In competition to make their video, pictures or posts viral, kids sometimes resort to being mean, racist and outrageous which may cause them harm in the future. This attitude usually spurs from peer pressure, but creates problems for teens in the later life.
• Last but not the least, fear of parents and law may also give them sleepless nights. They are worried if they deleted explicit conservation or photo from their cell phone. Did my parents find out about the pictures posted on my wall?

No medical standing

Despite the use of the term “social media depression”, there is no existing medical diagnosis or research that would support this common notion. Moreover, this issue is not recorded in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual on Mental Disorders, which is an official record of all the mental health issues for psychiatrists and mental health experts.

However, even in the absence of such medical records, there are researchers who have associated the excessive use of social media websites with depression; the process of creating this cause and effect is quite a tricky one. A question remains that whether the use of social media causes depression among teens or the already depressed kids move to the world of online social media to avoid any physical contact with the world.

Mental health professionals are sure that young children and teens are sensitive to influences from media – online, popular – which leave lasting impressions on their minds.