Facebook activity can reveal mental health clues

i have been a facebook user ever since i have a computer...and it is no doubt in my mind that facebook has become a night mare.not only for me but alot of my friends...i guess maybe i should forget about it...and use something else.. because i dont no what they want any more.. it is mind blogging.

"Mind Blogging" I like that

Pile of crap... perhaps even purposefully manipulative. Perhaps this article is part of the experiment...? No matter. People who post less personal information on these public forums might just be smarter than others. We've all heard the ghost stories... now this article suggests that those who are more careful with their postings have something wrong with them? Ridiculous!

I'm with John Doe, this article is ridiculous.

Facebook is a place where drug addicts, wife and child abusers and Aholes become pillars of the community with big mouths and the power of manipulation. They should call it Suicidebook.

I also agree with John Doe and Mom. When I had a Facebook account, I posted less because I like my privacy, and because I like to be in control of what people see about me online. I think it's safe to say that this is true for many FB users...

This study is filled with inaccuracies. Those people who are constantly on FB and needing to post their every move are the one with the mental health issues... not those that have a life outside of FB... and so what if I didn't post it to the world that I had the sniffles last week?? Who cares. This is a fluff article.

As an ex facebook user I determined that i would sooner enjoy real life not postings of baby bumps and how drunk someone got the night before.

I personally got rid of my fb account months ago and havent looked back. I hate the recent changes to fb in regards to their privacy settings. I used to be invisable - which was a great feature for me as I work in the educational field and do not like the thought of students having any kind of access to my fb account. but when all these changes started to take place I posted less and less. The thought of someone being able to see my comments, or pictures because a friend of mine didnt have their privacy filters on scared me. I also think there's another side to the coin that the article didnt mention. The people who over comment, or posts pictures every two seconds, who friends people they met once, those are the people who should be examined. They're so lonely and starved for affection in their "real life" that they have to announce every last detail on FB....

"Annonymous Sue" - You're misinformed about Facebook's privacy settings. Your posts aren't shared if your friends comment on your post if you have YOUR settings to private. Only comments and pictures posted as Public share are then shared on others news-feeds. For example I post a picture of my nephew and mark it as "Friends Only" and a friend of mine comments.. none of my friend's friends can see the picture unless they're on my (the original poster's) friend's list. That FB spam image about it being otherwise is just that... spam.

I don't post EVERYTHING because Facebook can become quite public. If you want to know what is going on in my life you can email me or phone me :)

The internet is a PUBLIC place and photos uploaded can become part of the interweb forever.

The comment made by Jess rings true, particularly as it would relate to Twitter. Now there is a real sad case of everyone knowing every little detail about ones life. Waste, total waste!! FB is becoming a controversial matter as it relates to the need for social media.

Admittedly my FB activity has decreased over the years because it is a very public space, as Meghan mentioned. I am much more selective as to the type and kinds of information shared, including what sorts of pictures I post and what I choose to share with the world.

FB also uses your information to target marketing material to individuals (much like Google does with monitoring IP addresses).

So not everyone that posts less are necessarily becoming more introverted or reclusive. Some may choose to share less, or perhaps may have other things in life that take priority over FB (at least I hope this is the case). I can see how extreme levels of activity over time might point to some kind of need to feel accepted and loved, and FB provides an opportunity to feed into insecurities.

I do agree with Don and Jess, this article needs some fleshing out.

FB is a cess pool for predators and the like. There are ALOT of things people post and for the most part have no idea where it originated from. I for one use it less and less all the time and I don't post pictures of my family as in my child. I also had someone on my friend list that I found out was a less than desirable character. And truth of the matter is, I really don't care what someone ate for breakfast or what time their last bowel movement was...

bull shit, facebook's for losers

This article was done by a bunch of idiots trying to get people to spill their guts all over the Facebook site and possibly to see how many people change privacy settings in their site to give everyone access just so they have a feeling of transparency which is a load of crap. No one wants to know how many times you picked your nose while brushing your teeth in the morning. No once really cares about most of the things other people do. Facebook was set up to entice the masses of idiots to blow their brains all over the internet and so that information can be used for gain -- and not the gain for the masses. It's so terribly true that the masses are idiots and go along with the plan. If the masses would use Facebook with some sort of discretion that would be a much different situation and one that the government and its corporations won't like. A picture is worth a 1000 words and people don't think of that and that they are being studied for what they are or who they are by the millions of words they are giving out by the pictures they give on their posts. Uploading a few pictures for friend and family sharing is one thing -- but, that's not the issue here. The issue is discovering who's who on the internet by following their activities in their life patterns. The reason for this article and the studies being done might well be to see these responses as well and to figure out if there might be a better way to rattle the masses chains and gather more useable intel for the books, corporate and government usages.

It is true, you must abide by this article and bow to its authority. Failure to do so and you are mentally disturbed. If you can't keep up with facebook, you need a medication so that you will use it more.

First, I would suggest that many of those who exhibit the above-mentioned "expressions" of adhedonia are likely just less comfortable with either Facebook specifically (for example because the site has regular privacy issues or might even be considered one big privacy issue) or with social media in general, with its inherent exhibitionism. In other words, maybe those who use Facebook less to communicate and connect are just as or actually more healthy psychologically, not less so. I don't mean to be a pr*ck, but I seriously dread the day where to abstain from frivolously sharing personal information or images on a website owned by a for-profit company is considered aberrant behaviour.

Second, I have a psych degree and the second point makes no sense as stated. What does redacting portions of messages given to researchers have to do with magical ideation or anomalous experiences of sensory inputs (i.e. hearing voices in a gust of wind, etc.)? For that matter, without being there oneself, how is a researcher to determine that anyone is misinterpreting his or her senses?

As for the question posed by the author, I am once again considering canceling my Facebook account after writing this, although I will likely keep it around as I have so far for its minor conveniences. However, I rarely post my "status" and keep private messages private, often by not using the site to communicate at all. But don't worry, I have a lot of friends.

Face Book, like most things has both good & bad. I like sharing jokes & amusing pictures with friends & family. Also has sites with info about interesting things, dog forum, etc. & I sign petitions on Causes which I feel are important. I certainly won't lose any sleep over what other people think. There will always be controversy over these things.

Seems to me that a lot of people aren't looking at the research and are instead taking it personally. Many people here don't post a lot on Facebook, which is great, neither do I... but they're personalizing it and thinking that because they are more private it means that researchers are implying that something is wrong with them, when in fact that's not the case. I think these people are too busy worrying about their own appearance to see that people with mental health issues, in many cases (because you can't generalize how people with mental health issues act) would be much more private about their lives on Facebook, as the study suggests...

I think those people who are offended by the research or upset by it probably need to look at their own vanity.

This study doesn't make sense. It should be the other way around. The people who are constantly on FB posting every second of their day are the ones that aren't enjoying real life as they are too preoccupied with FB. The ones who use it less, you would think, are the ones who are smart as not to give out too much info. and they are too busy enjoying life to be on it constantly! I agree with some of the others, this article and experiment seem like a ploy to coerce those who post less, to start posting everything about themselves so that they can be "watched" and "followed" by Big Brother or risk being judged as having mental health issues! Absurd!

Usually those who post fewer photos and fewer comments are guilty of actually having a real life in the real world. Just a though. ;-)

A few people here mistake commenting on others facebook or communicating with others as being a 'security issue' and not wanting to post private information. I choose to only add people I have met and continue to speak with on facebook, sure I have a small number of friends but I am ok with that. I also do not go on it very much as most of my friends, like me have moved away from facebook use, but I wouldn't invalidate the research done, any research done will have outliers, a margin of error, so because 'some of' the people act a certain way does not mean that what they research found does not exist; it means that the results are not universally accurate.

Basically, this article is saying that there is something weird about almost everyone and all Facebook does is give mental health docs a window into these people's lives. I find that these studies are always done by perfectly normal people with no problems. Yeah right. Like these psychologists always have their head on straight and are always looking for others with problems. Like they either don't have Facebook or they do and there is nothing wrong with the stuff they post right?. Like they post the right amount of pictures and have lots of friends and always leave comments and stuff right? But everyone else is weird but they are normal. Give me a break. Everyone is different and there is nothing wrong with people that have few friends. I find that the most insecure people are the ones that are always on Facebook and they have to have 1000 friends, like they add people that they have only met once or they had a class with at some point.

Actually, Facebook and social media cant predict anything mentally health related.

Because if the person doesnt want to make it known, they will give absolutely ZERO clues as to their mental health. Prediciting mental health with stupid things like social media is as accurate as saying what the weather forecast will be 3 months from now.

Not to mention most "mental health issues" are simply fluff and filler created by psychologists and psychiatrists, to increase profit margins for pharmaceutical corporations and elevated visits to see professionals, because they need more cash to fund their lifestyles.