Tuesday's Wake Up Call!: Facebook bad for your mental health?

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Depression.jpg
Is Facebook making people depressed?

Facebook's initial public offering of stock is likely to make a lot of developers and designers of the site very wealthy. But for many users, frequent Facebooking may not be so beneficial.

According to three new studies, Facebook can be tough on mental health, offering an all-too-alluring medium for social comparison and ill-advised status updates. And while adding a friend on the social networking site can make people feel cheery and connected, having a lot of friends is associated with feeling worse about one's own life.

Localize:

  • Find people with long lists of friends online and talk about how social networking can affect their mood. Do they ever over-share on Facebook? Are there posts they have regretted?
  • Do a man-on-the-street sidebar about people's most embarrasing posts, or posts they wish they could take back.
  • Talk with medical professionals about the dangers of investing too much time into social netowrks and the importance of having direct, human connections.
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