Your Facebook Profile Could Determine Mental Illness

Everyone has that one crazy Facebook friend. They overshare, write cryptic statuses or worse, type in all caps.
Those seemingly annoying posts, or lack thereof, could be more than just news feed fodder. Facebook profiles could be used as insight into mental health issues, a new study says.
According to researchers at the University of Missouri, whether you post once an hour or once a month can be an indicator of your psychological state. Researchers surveyed more than 200 college students to gauge their levels of extroversion and support of strange beliefs, then asked participants to print their Facebook activity. Students had the option of blacking out portions of their Timeline.
What they chose to conceal revealed information about their psychological state, study researcher Elizabeth Martin says in a statement.
Some individuals exhibited social anhedonia, a condition characterized by lack of pleasure from communicating and interacting with others. Their symptoms ranged from social withdrawal to odd beliefs, and those same people posted less photos, communicated less frequently via Facebook and had a lower friend count.
Others showed signs of paranoia based on how much information they blacked out on their profile.
The idea for the study came through a conversation between Martin and the second author, Drew Bailey, who doesn't have a Facebook profile. A discussion arose about profile content and its correlation to psychology.
"The Internet is novel way to study human psychology because it can ameliorate some of the self-report biases associated with paper-and-pencil reports," Martin told Mashable in an email. "Because of the real or imagined perception of anonymity, the Internet may allow unique access to the psyche. One’s social networking information can be understood as an example of one’s naturalistic behavior."
Though it's unclear whether or not therapists and psychologists can use social networks for treatment, Martin says the study is a first step to using the information to possibly provide a more complete clinical picture.
What do you think your Facebook profile says about you? Do you believe this may be an effective measure of mental health? Let us know what you think in the comments.

Posted in: FACEBOOK