Can Social Networking Cause Depression?

Internet Use
The Internet is commonly used for retrieving information. The amount of information seen online is endless, and the accuracy is questionable. But people continue to turn to the Internet to look for answers. But is this a good thing, particularly for those suffering from diseases and illnesses like depression?

Internet usage varies from one person to another. Some addictive users of the Internet tend to look at more sexually gratifying websites and gaming websites. Such websites are linked to people who already are depressed. However how do social networking sites affect addictive users of the Internet?

Social Networking
Medical practitioners continue to play a vital role in providing medical information to depression sufferers given the emergence of health related social sites. Networking sites allow people to communicate with other people on a global scale. People are given the opportunity to find old friends or make new ones. This new world of socializing online, gives depression sufferers many platforms such as medical blogs, live health chat, videos and much more.

Social Networking Can Cause Depression
It seems that people are substituting the Internet for normal social activities. Playing in the street with the neighbors is now a thing of the past; people are now turning to social networking sites to play games with their neighbors in the virtual space. This level of disengagement can expose some people to depression. Some people cannot control their Internet use, which in turn leads to feelings of distress and functional impairment of their daily activities. Men generally show more addictive tendencies than women in Internet use, and younger people show more addictive tendencies than older people. Given this, should social networking be banned to those suffering from depression?

No, Social Networking Doesn't Cause Depression
Some people, who use the Internet and social networking sites more often than others, have already been diagnosed with depression. Factors that correlate to depression and result in addictive behavior include gambling, alcoholism, and weight problems. There are other circumstances that conclude to depression which cause people to head to the Internet and social networking sites. Such circumstances that are required to be further examined include personal, social, professional, and health circumstances that influence mental health.

Support Communities
Information on illnesses such as depression is now readily available online. There are a lot of people who suffer from depression and have not heard of health related social networking sites. These sites are engaging, empowering and educating disease and illness sufferers. People have found excellent solutions on health related social networking sites. These sites are not replacing these professionals but instead aim to give illness suffers a voice, a voice to be heard by other disease and illness sufferers.

Online health communities bring people together, forming simple companionship, and sharing knowledge and information.

Quality of life improves when the illness sufferers are in control of their illness or disease, and online health communities provide illness sufferers this support. The greater the community, the greater the support. All health communities require growth, growth by visitors and growth by registered members participating in discussions.

The winner of a global social site containing a platform for various health communities is Social-medicine.org. Its aim is to connect people suffering from various diseases and illnesses and encourages people to share information for the benefit of helping each other with their health.