Does Facebook cause depression?

I am being serious here. For all its supposedly glamorous attributes, and the way it is supposed to help us all stay so 'connected' to the world around us, I am going to take a contrarian view (big surprise there) and argue that Facebook is destroying individuals. I am not talking about destroying the obvious things like social skills, interpersonal skills, time spent doing other stuff like reading books or playing with kids, etc etc. Here, I am talking about Facebook--and all 'social networking' for that matter--damaging self esteem.

In the interest of full disclosure, and to offer a bit of refutation, it might seem ironic that I am voicing this opinion while I myself and writing on a blog--a blog that the world can read (or at least four people in the world) and a blog that my wife will soon post on Facebook. All I can say is that the purpose of this blog is worlds apart from the purpose of FB--the intent here has always been to 'chronicle' the real life events of myself and my family; I want Callum, Maira, and Amanda to look back on this blog someday and say "oh my gosh....remember in 2010 when daddy peed his pants that day?" and stuff like that.

One of the reasons I am averse to FB is akin to the reason I hate summer so much: There is too much 'peer pressure' to go out and do 'amazing' things to, and please pardon the cliche, 'keep up with the Joneses.' When it is a nice day outside, I feel badly sitting inside, reading a book or playing Thomas the Choo Choo, since the world tells us we need to be out doing other stuff, right? Likewise, when I log onto FB and see everyone at their camps, their concerts, their vacations, their hanggliding trips, their blah blah blahs, dont I get a bit jealous that "I" am not there too? Should I? Do you?

Dont get me wrong: It is great that these people do these things, and I am happy for them. Furthermore, I am not judging them. Good for them for having fun. What I am talking about here is the INDIVIDUAL reading their newsfeed. Now I am no psychologist, but I would argue that seeing all this "fun" taking place around them might in turn make the reader on FB feel a bit depressed that Tim is at a Duxberry Beach, Jay is at Pink Floyd Concert, John is hiking, Hank is on a lobster boat, George is in outer space, and Jon is on a bike ride.....and here I am, alone, reading about everyone doing cool stuff. In college, in a communication class, we called this kind of behavior a parasocial relationship, and it can be pretty detrimental to one's psyche.

I have a great life. We have a nice house, a canoe, two healthy and beautiful kids, an ATV, a steady supply of British Comedy on DVD, and lots of coffee. We have fun. But, in the interest of full disclosure, I cant lie when I say I sometimes get weary of looking on my newsfeed seeing everyone else seemingly having more "fun" than me. Who is with me? FB takes the "grass is always greener on the other side" adage and puts it steroids; if indeed FB creates this sort of "global village," then that 'grass' becomes an Iowa cornfield!

Sprinkler Uniform.....

Approaching 90, and playing horseshoes and baseball with his great grandkids....God Bless him.....
this is amazing and beautiful and admirable.....

My hope (for myself) for everyone is to be healthy and be happy with where they are at. I truly fear for people that eventually there will be some million dollar study so some dude can get on NPR, and the study will argue social networking's connection to depression and, God forbid, suicide. Be happy with where you are at. If you succeed in that, please let me know how you can do it! ha ha. In the meantime, I am going to go out and try not to pay attention to how much fun the rest of the world is having, since I dont want it to interfere with the precious time I have been given to make my own joy.