Facebook has admitted social media can be bad for your mental health but claims the remedy to feeling blue is to post on its site more often.
Experts have long linked intense social media use to depression and low self esteem but tech giants have tended to avoid the thorny issue. 
In a blog post Facebook’s director of research David Ginsberg and research scientist Moira Burke acknowledged social media can leave people “feeling worse”.
But they argued that how you use social media has a big impact on how it will effect your wellbeing. Passively scrolling through your Facebook news feed to see who is getting married or enjoying the holiday of a lifetime may make you feel bad, the blog post says.
But Mr Ginsberg argues that if you use the site to chat with friends and share experiences it can be beneficial.
He wrote: “In general when people spend a lot of time passively consuming information – reading but not interacting with people – they report feeling worse afterwards.”
But the post continued: “Actively interacting with people — especially sharing messages, posts and comments with close friends and reminiscing about past interactions — is linked to improvements in well-being.
“This ability to connect with relatives, classmates, and colleagues is what drew many of us to Facebook in the first place, and it’s no surprise that staying in touch with these friends and loved ones brings us joy and strengthens our sense of community.”
The piece cited research from the University of California which found that people who “like” lots of posts suffer worse mental health because they draw comparisons with their own lives. But, the authors also drew attention to separate research from the University of Michigan which found that students who spent 10 minutes chatting with pals on the network were happier than those who spent 10 minutes simply reading posts.
Mr Ginsberg said Facebook is working on new developments to encourage engagement and allow people to personalise their feeds and block posts that could have a negative impact on them. – The Sun UK.
