Associate Professor of Communication Melanie Green, and Chair of Psychiatry in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences Steven Dubovsky, recently gave their thoughts on whether social media could be the reason for the recent increase of depression in the U.S. to AtBuffalo magazine. Cyberbullying has been a problem since the birth of the internet, but with online interactions increasing and social media platforms growing more popular, it has become a bigger threat to society. Dubovsky states that on the internet, people are freely able to curse at one another without any consequences. “But even before things got so polarized, people were prone to social comparison on Facebook, which can be quite a negative because you end up feeling bad about yourself,” says Green. “This is where people post the most exciting thing they’ve done while you’re doing homework, thinking, ‘Oh, well, they’re in the Bahamas, enjoying themselves.’” Social media profiles are often false realities which can be extremely stressful to maintain.

To learn more about the link between social media and depression, click here.