Is Facebook bad for mental health? What do you think?

I always remember a friend of mine encouraged me years ago, to join it. I was reluctant, I didn't really like the sound of it. It sounded rather exposing. "You can take part as much or as little as you like" she promised me. Oh OK – I gave it a go.

Next minute, I am posting photos of all my family and friends and putting my whole life on there.

I started making 'friends' with everyone I even vaguely recognised, even the people I didn't like. I would then pour out my soul, and then wonder why on earth I was sharing this with everyone. Even with privacy settings (that many don't seem to have, happy to go public) I was still telling over a hundred people my inner most thoughts.

Paranoia sunk in, but I was addicted, I couldn't seem to help myself. Was it approval that I was after? Just a novelty?

Then I would read all of what everyone else were up to, usually a much better time than me! I would also spend time reading absolute rubbish and wonder why I was even reading it.

I eventually left it temporarily (Facebook make it hard to cancel your account).

Yes, I then missed it and went back on it. Same scenario, but I deleted all photos, all comments and half of my so called 'friends'. More and more people joined Facebook, I might be missing something if I do not have a look! What will people think of me now that I now only have 50 friends ? I am not very popular!

Perhaps I will post what I had for dinner, people seem to 'like' that.

Eventually, I managed to completely cancel my account. They even gave me time to change my mind. Facebook are clever. I persevered and was without it for a few months.

"How long will that last?" people said... as the majority seem to be addicted. Determined I was...

Oh, then my mother wanted to join it and asked me to help her, mistake! She doesn't understand it at all and still asks me questions every time I call her, to the extent I want to crawl into a hole.

Guess what, I eventually went back on it myself, and have regretted it ever since. I decided I must make as many friends as possible, will I get back to the over hundred I originally had? Do I even want to? Why am I doing this? I am back to square one.

All these people are still having a good time. Or are they? Why do they feel the need to post their every move in life? Then I have a rant on there and regret it. Total paranoia creeps in again.

'Let's promote mental health', I think to myself, but unfortunately, a mental health post and I find it tends to go rather quiet. No one likes those.

I have to go now, I have to look on Facebook. There might be some ground breaking news, and after all, I had beans on toast for tea last night, and I am sure everyone would 'like' a photo of it. Especially if I put some grated cheese on top.

Molly

A Moodscope member.