Flowers

The Healing Powers of Facebook

11.01.10

By MIKITA BROTTMAN

N ot long ago, the web was abuzz with the saga of Nathalie Blanchard, a 29-year-old Canadian woman suffering from depression whose benefits were withdrawn when pictures appeared on Facebook showing her “having fun.” There are many reasons why this story is disturbing—it is scary to think that insurance companies employ representatives to patrol Facebook, for one thing—but perhaps most troublesome is the idea that anyone would believe there to be a direct correlation between a person’s Facebook profile and their inner life.

The people I know who spend the most time on Facebook are introverts, who would prefer to leave a message on someone’s “wall” than risk an encounter in the flesh. Most truly outgoing people, in my experience, are much too busy with work, friends and kids to spend hours sitting around downloading pictures, filling out quizzes and fiddling with apps. In this sense, Facebook is a substitution for a busy social life, not a reflection of it. More often than not, uploading pictures to your profile may be a form of compensation—a way of assuring others (and yourself) that you do, in fact, have friends, with whom you sometimes appear to “have fun.” In this respect, Nathalie Blanchard’s “happy” pictures would be a confirmation of her depression, rather than a refutation of it.

Source: CounterPunch