Does the internet cause depression?

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daisybell
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Does the internet cause depression?

Post by daisybell »

I saw an interesting article in the news today- I read it first in a rather more sensational and biased newspaper, the BBC takes a more balanced approach to the study.

The idea of addiction to the internet is not a new one, exactly- people being addicted to MMORPGs has been covered plenty of times before- but linking it with other mental health problems isn't something I've seen before.

I don't think most people who use the internet become depressed because they go online (and fortunately, the study's authors acknowledge this). But if you look at the sorts of behaviours that depressed people have- not wanting to go out, avoiding social situations, loneliness and isolation, of course the internet is bound to step into that gap.

For my own depression, the internet has been a massive help in recovery- I've made wonderful new friends, found new things to do and felt less isolated and alone than I would have done had I not had access to it.
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Kantark
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Re: Does the internet cause depression?

Post by Kantark »

That was my immediate reaction upon reading that article too, Daisy - I think if one does cause the other then it'd be that way around; effects of depression leading to more time spent on activities like t'internet.
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Jazzy
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Re: Does the internet cause depression?

Post by Jazzy »

I became depressed because of chronic illness which took away my normal social life (try going out on the town when you're sleeping sixteen hours a day) and I'm not sure what I would've done without the internet. At least this way I can still talk to people and not become isolated. And it would certainly have been a lot worse without the support of some of the people I've met on the internet.
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Re: Does the internet cause depression?

Post by Jessi »

The internet has been a saving grace for me when I've been at my worst with depression, particularly my junior year of college when I lived with crazy, psycho roommates and felt very restless. Getting to play RO and talk to friends is what kept me sane in that awful situation (though eventually I had to move out, anyway xD) I won't say the internet -cured- my depression because it certainly did not. but it has made me feel better about myself.

Incidentally, I feel the same way about 'addiction' to MMORPGs - which is actually part of why I had psycho roommates in the first place. They pretty much monitored my internet use CONSTANTLY and would get angry with me if I came home from class and started playing RO instead of right away jumping into homework. If I hadn't used that MMO to keep sane, I never would have met Lindsey - and then never would have met NC. Which means I never would have met several of my closest friends now, including Ty and Joey and Seerow, and a bunch of you guys. So the internet has done pretty much everything for me EXCEPT depress me!
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Re: Does the internet cause depression?

Post by AngharadTy »

I don't know if I had clinical depression--it was probably just the fact of being in high school, the worst time of my life--but the internet definitely helped me through it (and found me a husband). I used to be a lot more withdrawn and shy. I'm still shy, dunno how to get over it entirely, but now I can actually talk to people and at least pretend I'm not shy.

Of course I can't say if my life would be better in some way without the internet, because that's a big what-if. I've never been a particularly ambitious person, and I'm not doing very well financially. But I like what the internet has done for me. So there is my anecdata. Hehe.
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Jax
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Re: Does the internet cause depression?

Post by Jax »

While I've met some fantastic people through the internet (and without it I would have never been able to communicate with my boyfriend) I admit it sometimes feeds my paranoia. I have a really bad habit of thinking everyone on the internet hates me and would like it if I just went away, of course, I have a habit of thinking this in real life as well. I get embarrassed easily both online and in real life, just online I tend to stare at a post longer thinking "Oh god what if they think I'm a n00b/stupid?"

But, looking at the good, all the fantastic people these tubes have brought me, including some of the best friends I could ever hope for, really even out the bad. I don't have many people in real life who I share a lot of my hobbies (collection, pokemon, virutal pet sites, etc.) with. So it's nice to have somewhere I can go and rave about the new rubber ducks without seeming insane.

But weighing the good against the bad, I can't imagine what my life would be like without it, I'd be a lot lonelier and probably worse off with no one to rant my problems to when I don't have time to see someone.
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Re: Does the internet cause depression?

Post by Seerow »

Internet has definitely helped me get my life back on track. I feel like I can talk to people more freely online then I can face to face. I'm not good at sharing emotions or really talking about myself, but it is much easier online for me and to get feedback from people.

I do however think that an argument I had on an MMORPG kick started a depression freshman year of college. A really good friend and I had a terrible fight and I felt really worthless after that. It didn't cause it, but it was the last straw so to say. But again, the internet and the friends I've made since have definitely helped me through some of the worst patches of my life, like this past summer.

So uhh, thank you internet 0_o
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Re: Does the internet cause depression?

Post by Usul_Princess »

The internet itself doesn't cause depression, nor does it encourage avoidance. I think that more introverted people gravitate towards using the internet as a legit hobby. For me it eats up a lot of my idle time, but admittedly I'm someone who hates real-life socialization or initial ice breaking and happens to be chronically depressed. I intentionally isolate myself because I'm hypersensitive and I enjoy looking down on mainstream culture. :P I have next to nothing in common with most people in my age bracket, and I go on the internet to find the few people who share the few interests I do have. (It seems harder to find real-life intelligent people to hang around these days. They seem so.....dense and unambitious.) I was like this before I had internet access. It didn't seem to help nor hurt me. I agree and disagree with the article, I just can't pinpoint what exactly.
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Rainbow Daydreamer
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Re: Does the internet cause depression?

Post by Rainbow Daydreamer »

What I hate about articles like this is that they always seem to take it as a basic assumption that online friendships are inherently worth less than those that form in the offline world. Some of my closest friendships have been formed online, a lot of them through Neo, and when I see someone talking about "real" versus "virtual" socialising I always get the feeling that they've learnt about online friendships from books and journal articles, not by actually having any friends online. In my case, "real" socialising has always been something I've hated with a passion. Put me in a room full of strangers with drinks and chit-chat and I'll be yearning to run away into the night five minutes in.

I don't buy for one minute that the Internet causes depression. I do think, however, that those who feel depressed are more likely to get more extremely involved with any hobby or pastime they've got that takes their mind off things. When I had my "crash term" a few years ago, one of my clearest memories is making massive quantities of cake, enough that some weeks even the chapel choir couldn't polish it all off; it was just the sheer comfort of performing a task that brought my attention out of my tangled head and gave me something I knew, for sure, I was good at. I think that's probably what's showing up here, and the technological lens is just a pre-imagined conclusion.
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Jax
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Re: Does the internet cause depression?

Post by Jax »

Rainbow Daydreamer wrote:What I hate about articles like this is that they always seem to take it as a basic assumption that online friendships are inherently worth less than those that form in the offline world
Ugh this, my freshman seminar teacher had a whole class where all he talked about was how online friendships aren't as good as real life ones because you "don't really know the person". I almost walked out of that class
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Re: Does the internet cause depression?

Post by Wingsrising »

Pet peeve alert.

If you read the abstract of the study (SECOND pet peeve -- that the news article doesn't provide a link) the authors don't say surfing the Internet causes depression. All they claim to show is that Internet addiction and depression occur together more often then you'd expect by chance -- that is, people in the group that had a high score on the IA scale had a higher rate of depression (as score on the Beck Depression Inventory) than the group with a low score on the IA scale.

At least that's what I'm getting from the abstract. Third pet peeve -- that it isn't easier for people to get the full text of papers.

They're not claiming that Web surfing causes depression, or exacerbates depression, and CERTAINLY not that everyone who surfs the Web is depressed. They're not even saying that everyone who gets a high score on the IA scale is depressed, only that they're depressed more often than non-addicted Internet users.

There appears to be a copy of the Internet Addiction scale here -- you can try it and see how you do. I only scored at the high end of "normal" and I spend so much time online that my cats' signal that I'm about to go to bed (and thus, that they're about to get their pre-bedtime meal) is when I turn off the monitor. So they're not using "Internet addict" to refer to anyone who spends a little more time online than they maybe should.

Sorry, like I said, pet peeve. They're making a statistical claim about a particular set of Internet users, so the experience of any given Internet user doesn't disprove it.
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Re: Does the internet cause depression?

Post by AngharadTy »

Wingsrising wrote:Third pet peeve -- that it isn't easier for people to get the full text of papers.
Hot damn, I agree with you so much. I understand the journals want to make money, and so on and so forth, but geez, it's so hard to access scientific exploration if you're not subscribed, you're not at a university that subscribes, your university only gets hardcopy and it's sorted poorly in their library, etc. I'm mostly resigned to news articles that give their own interpretation of papers, but I don't like it by any means, and I wish things were better.

(Similarly, that abstinence-only education paper that came out recently has been "quoted" all over the damn place for the past couple days by news sources that have no goddamn clue what the paper actually says. Ughhhhhh.)
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Wingsrising
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Re: Does the internet cause depression?

Post by Wingsrising »

Yep. Even at a university it can be annoying (e.g. my university doesn't subscribe to any American Psychological Association journals online, and when I'm at home it's harder to get articles.)

I know the National Institutes of Health require research funded by grants to be made publicly available within 12 months. It does seem to me that more generally, taxpayer-funded research should be available to the people who paid for it!

I think that a more and more journals go online this will become less and less of a problem, given that scientists don't generally make money directly from the papers anyway and thus don't care if the work is distributed free.
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Re: Does the internet cause depression?

Post by Alicorn »

I agree with all that was said here. It what I was thinking but much better worded. I've been addicted to the internet since I was in middle school. It started out with roleplaying clubs then I met my wife to be and I got on to be with her. I did do other things while on the internet (roleplaying, neopets and such). But my main reason was to talk with her. It's hard to imagine what I would be like if I didn't get addicted to the internet. It's surreal to think about. But I don't regret it. I got to meet some real cool people and make friends with them and meet my wife as well. It's funny the different reactions I get when I tell people I met my wife online. But I was quiet surprised by how many people I met that said they met their girl/boyfriend or husband/wife on the net. Hell my own Dad met his wife on an online dating site. It is becoming quiet a common thing. But I must say, I'm definitely a lot more open on the net then I am in person. Probably cause I feel that I know on the internet, I could find atleast one person that feels the same, more so then I can in real life.
Anywho, back on subject, my wife suffers with clinical depression and I can tell you net doesn't depress her more. It actually ups her mood some. She loves jumping on Neopets, now Subeta to hoard (her favorite thing to do). She just loves it and it always cheers her up. And then I go around and get her a gift on Subeta and she always cheers up that way too. So now, atleast for her it doesn't seem to depress her at all. She gets on to cheer herself up. Hell, I'm more addicted to the internet then she is. ^-^'
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