Essentially, the study revolves around the consequences of using social networking sites, specifically Facebook. Several earlier studies suggest that Internet use was associated with depressive symptoms and other negative mental health problems. However, there were also recent studies suggesting that Internet use was associated with positive effects. The researchers (Feinstein et al., 2013) proposed that the general quality of interactions while using social networking sites is a bigger factor affecting the mental health than the amount of time spent using the social networking sites. The researchers hypothesized that negative social comparison while using Facebook would be associated with increases in rumination, and that increases in rumination would be associated with depressive symptoms (Feinstein et al., 2013).
In the introduction part of the article, the authors stated that there have been mixed results regarding the consequences of Internet use. In fact, the term "Facebook depression," a term referring to the depression resulting from spending too much time on Facebook, was coined by O'Keeffe and Clarke-Pearson (as cited in Feinstein et al., 2013). This called for a greater attention to clarify the correlation between the use of social networking sites and the general mental health. Notably, a relevant study was performed by Davila et al., whose results predicted that poorer quality of interactions has a more negative outcome than the amount of time spent using the Internet (as cited in Feinstein et al., 2013). Moreover, one possible mechanism that relates Internet use and mental health is the idea of social comparison. Social comparison refers to the idea of relating the information about others to self. According to Festinger, social comparison results to self-evaluation that potentially affects self-judgment (as cited in Feinstein et al., 2013). Although Wood claimed that negative social comparisons can also have positive effects, negative social comparisons can be a big factor leading to poorer well-being (as cited in Feinstein et al., 2013). To further understand the effects of social comparisons to mental health, Feinstein et al. (2013) proposed the possible catalyst, which is rumination. According to Nolen-Hoeksema, Wisco, and Lyubomirsky, rumination refers to the repetitive focusing on the distress of an individual, while Aldao, Nolen-Hoeksema, and Schweizer claimed that rumination is associated with depressive symptoms and other negative mental health outcomes (as cited in Feinstein et al., 2013).
Because of these information, the authors decided to test their claim that rumination results from the negative social comparison while using Facebook. One similar study was performed by Locatelli, Kluwe, and Bryant, but Feinstein et al. (2013) extends their study by focusing on the idea of social comparison. Although their study focused on the idea that rumination from social comparison leads to depressive symptoms, Feinstein et al. (2013) considered the possibility of a bidirectional association, and thus, they also examined the idea that rumination results from the depressive symptoms from social comparison.
The participants of the study were students with a psychology course at the Stony Brook University. The total number of participants was 268, with 181 female students and 105 male students. The sample had an average age of 19.66 years, while the ethnic distribution of the final sample consists of 40% Caucasians, 42% Asians, 5% Latino/Latina, 4% African-Americans, 3% Middle-Easterns and last 6% distributed among other ethnic groups (Feinstein et al., 2013).
The study showed that negative social comparisons, rumination, and depressive symptoms were positively associated with one another. To be specific, negative social comparisons was seen to increase rumination, which leads to increases in depressive symptoms. Therefore, rumination is the mediator while the depressive symptoms are the outcome, and not the other way around. More notably, the study showed that negative social comparison while using social networking sites leads to depressive symptoms, which suggests that using social networking sites can predict the general mental health of an individual. Moreover, rumination leads to depressive symptoms, which may be explained by the association of rumination with reduced interpersonal problem solving, more pessimistic views, and less willingness in engaging in opportunities to lift mood (Feinstein et al., 2013).
As a person that is actively participating on social networking sites, reading the scholarly article is an eye-opener. Although I use social networking sites to communicate and as a way to express, there may be some times that I felt inferior due to other's successes. After reading the article, I learned that it is best to prevent those emotions from surfacing. The article suggests that those emotions lead to depressive symptoms. Needless to say, I would be more conscious about how I feel when I browse social networking sites. Moreover, I would recommend this article, or disseminate the results and conclusions of this article, to my friends and family so that they would be more aware and knowledgeable about the relationship of using social networking sites and general mental health.
References
Feinstein, Brian A. et al. (2013). Negative Social Comparison on Facebook and Depressive Symptoms: Rumination as a Mechanism. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 2(3), 161-170.
