According to a new study published in the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology, the more friends a teenager has on Facebook, the more stressed he or she is likely to be. The study found that this may contribute to teenagers' heightened future risk of depression.
In the past couple of years until today, the use of social media among teenagers has rapidly increased. In 2012, Pew Research Center conducted a study and found that for those who are active online, almost 81% of teenagers aged 12-17 use some form of social media, while 71% of them use Facebook.
A number of studies have already suggested that the use of such sites, although helps people to stay connected, it may still bring adverse health implications, particularly for adolescents
As reported on Medical News Today, a study about pressures on social media for teenagers may lead to anxiety and depression was recently discovered in September this year.
Study lead author, Prof. Sonia Lupien, of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Montreal in Canada, together with her colleagues have found that the number of friends a teenager has on Facebook may indicate various levels of stress which can potentially impact their life depression risk in the future.
Having more than 300 Facebook friends increases stress levels
In order to come up with their findings, the team has enrolled 88 teenagers having an age range of 12-17, with 41 boys and 47 girls as their control group for the said study.
Those who had more than 300 friends on their preferred social media site, such as Facebook, had higher cortisol levels compared with those teenagers who had fewer than 300 Facebook friends. Prof. Lupien also adds that for those who have 1,000 or 2,000 Facebook friends, they can already imagine how subjected they are to an even greater stress.
And among those teenagers who has supported their friends on the social media by means of "liking" their posts or sending them encouraging words, the researchers have found that there was a decrease in their cortisol levels.
