Experts: Social networking puts users in despair and anxiety

science and technology

While social networks have facilitated people-to-people communication more than ever before, experts warn that users of these networks are wary of who becomes friends with them, as despair and anxiety can spread through close social networks.

"The main meaning of this is that instead of treating patients with depression only to drugs or individual psychotherapy, doctors should also look at the immediate social networks and broader social context, including effects," said Tarun Bastambillay of Flinders University in Jamaica. Friends, family and welfare at work ".

The therapeutic interventions could include the analysis of "depression groups" and the development of more positive and healthy social networks from relatives, friends, colleagues and neighbors, as well as joining a sports club or hobby group to expand the social network, the researchers said in a Lancet newsletter.

"Now more than ever before, we have ways to connect to other people over the Internet," she said. "Our notes can be full and our lives busy, but do we communicate in a meaningful or harmful way through these social networks?"

They pointed out that doctors may need to look beyond the psychology of the individual and look at the broader social network and the negative or positive effects that occur in the environment

Psychologists have warned that networking sites are dismantling traditional social networks – a direct one for daily life – with the loss of social support associated with an increase in alcohol-related "death deaths" and increased doses of opium and suicide.

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