Facebook...The Good or the Bad...Your Say!

[blondguy]

Hi Everybody

Without a doubt Facebook is one of the best social media sites. I have been on FB for a long time and found it invaluable yet very stressful at times whilst having anxiety and/or depression or even just checking it every day.

Your views on FB, its impact on your mental health, well being, whether good or not so good are more than welcome.

Thankyou for reading my thread topic!

my kind thoughts

Paul

[alasdayr]

CMF, Facebook, Instagram, Youtube and most other social media's tend to be people's "highlights reel". Where as we live with our own behind the scenes reality.

When you are feeling down, having others appearing that "all is great" often makes things seem worse.

There is also a lot of FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt) cast on social media (political commentary, news commentary, etc..). This can cause stress and anxiety. Unless you can mentally filter it, it's best not to be on those platforms.

I limit my time on these platforms to a minimum. For work and hobby purposes I need to be contactable, but I do not read or post much.

[Guest_1584]

Hiya quirk.

Yeah l dunno about the kids now , l know my daughter saw through it all yrs ago so she does still use it a little bit but not in the way they all use too. Not sure about others or her friends these days say.

Ha , over 50s haaaa yeah wouldn't surprise me . When l was going through going though divorce l was in a marriage forum and l could not believe the garbage and trouble fb was causing with married and divorcing people too and how seriously they all took it.Although from the marriage point of view they had to l guess bc most of the time their spouses or now ex was on fb either meeting someone new or displaying someone new ir openly cheating or you name it for all to see. lt was crazy stuff.

[Guest_1643]

Hi! This is a good topic... there really does seem to be a connection to Facebook and mental health... I closed my Facebook last year (after 10 years!!) and sometimes I wander if I made a mistake....Because Facebook is a less intimidating way to reach out to someone, you can find people and make friends easily there. Lot harder to exchange phone numbers, but on Facebook you can quickly add and chat to people and make a larger circle of friends. However, I was pretty addicted to it and found when I was depressed, it made things worse. It was kind of a relief to close it down, to be honest, and live more in the real world, but just have to be careful not to isolate. The jury's out if Facebook makes us more or less socially isolated, in the long run.

[Guest_1584]

Yeah right , good for you.

But not a doubt in my mind though with what we saw a lot of my daughters friends go through when they were younger.

But for any age on the friend thing , 95% of the so called friends aren't even real anyway or even spent 5mins with each other in RL actually hanging out in person, , apart from the small amount of real friends ,

[blondguy]

Hello everyone and thankyou for your helpful input on this thread topic!

Hi Alasdayr.....Great post...and an accurate one as well....You mentioned 'When you are feeling down, having others appearing that "all is great" often makes things seem worse'

Alasdayr also mentioned ' Unless you can mentally filter it, it's best not to be on those platforms' (social media)

Hey RX....always a bonus to have your point of view anywhere on the forums and your daughter must take after you by seeing 'through' the negatives that can exist for young people who take FB too seriously...You Rock RX!

Hey Sleepy21....Thankyou for being a part of the discussion and your super kind post too! You closed your FB account after 10 years and then you mentioned 'It was kind of a relief to close it down, to be honest, and live more in the real world, but just have to be careful not to isolate' Your balanced post on FB is appreciated. Like yourself I cancelled my account as I found myself checking it all the time....and found a sense of peace by doing so

thankyou amazing people 🙂

Paul

[Blufftuff]

Thank you it was refreshing to hear from you and I sense your passion to encourage people which is great.

I have been asked to asked to build a rapport with a BB member as I am very interested in becoming one myself a they told me to find someone who I feel would be very helpful in answering any questions or concerns I may have.

fully understand if you cannot do this.

Look forward to hearing from you soon.

BT

regards.

[blondguy]

Hi BT!

Thankyou for the super kind post 🙂 You are already a member of the Beyond Blue forums by having the courage to post initially and its great to have you 'on the air' with everyone

What are your thoughts re the thread topic?

my kind thoughts

Paul

[Blufftuff]

Thanks for keeping in touch ,

The topic is one which I love as I really do believe that yes we may go some bad/ tough times

But through this we have to find something positive/good we can focus on and we have to empower ourselves to think positively even when it is really hard to do so.

my personal experience has been focusing on the good has taken my mind off the bad and helped me with my own well being.

[Gambit87]

IMO - Facebook is a blessing and curse but

I'm starting with a curse - It can get very depressing. Theres so much depressing and negative content. People doing silly things for 'likes' etc, people trolling/being nasty for no particular reason. I see why people get rid of facebook.

having said that - Its a blessing because other then keeping up with friends/family - Its also a great way to connect with like minded people through the various interest/hobby groups. Its pretty great to throw a question to a group and have it answered with a fair degree of accuracy. Its also a great way to keep track of local events which may not be advertised through ordinary TV/radio/newspapers etc.

[Guest_1643]

Hi Gambit, you are right that there's a lot of practical benefts.... and throwing a question to a group of people online yields amazing results, no doubt about it. Did you use Facebook groups and get help from them?I wander if there are support groups like this on there... Overall i[m pretty happy not to be on Facebook, but i'm sure there are, even there, good communities