
CHICAGO (AP) — Add “Facebook depression” to potential harms linked with social media, an influential doctors’ group warns, referring to a condition it says may affect troubled teens who obsess over the online site.
I certainly don't mean to minimize this condition, which is just one more obstacle teenagers need to navigate on the road to adulthood, but I worry that the media has picked up on another "internet scare" and is playing it for everything it is worth. It is a bonafied problem cited by the American Pediatric Association. When I googled "Facebook depression" I received about 32,800,000 results in (0.13 seconds). Now, come on . . . . do you really think there are that many articles about a disorder that physicians have just recently discovered?
OK, let's assume it is true (after all, who would argue with the American Pediatric Association?) I have another disorder to add to the growing list--Facebook Extroversion. I would never know about this syndrome except that I happened to comment to my class the other day that "Mary" (again, I have changed the names to protect the innocent) was so quiet in class and I had noticed she was speaking up a teeny tiny bit more. The entire group of girls with her all chimed in "Mary??? You should see her on Facebook. She is chatty as can be!" I looked at her, trying not to get "teacher depression" because she never says a word in my class and calmly asked,"Mary, why are you so quiet in here and so chatty on Facebook?" In her most diminutive voice she replied,"because I'm not afraid to speak on Facebook--nobody is looking at me." That is when I realized that, although some children do not benefit from Facebook, there are many that do--Children that are afraid to speak in class for fear of getting the wrong answer or being laughed at.
The dictionary defines extroversion as: at ease in talking to others. Mary was suddenly at ease talking to others. Many would say, but this makes her anonymous. I would disagree. These children are not completely anonymous because all the girls in my class knew about Mary's extroversion on Facebook but Mary didn't suffer the crippling fear of speaking in class in front of her peers. These girls talked more to Mary at lunch and in the hallways because of the friendships she had built up on Facebook. So . . . Don't tell me there is nothing good about Facebook. I think these whippersnappers are on to something!