Is there a better way to identify the depressed?
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The Wisdom of Psychopaths
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Consider two questions. First: Who are you? What makes you different from your peers, in terms of the things you buy, the clothes you wear, and the car you drive (or refuse to)? What makes you unique in terms of your basic psychological make-up—the part of you that makes you do the things you do, say the things you say, and feel the things you feel? And the second question: How do you use the internet?
Although these questions may seem unrelated, they’re not. Clearly the content of your internet usage can suggest certain psychological characteristics. Spending a lot of late nights playing high stakes internet poker? Chances are you are a risk taker. Like to post videos of yourself doing karaoke on YouTube? Clearly an extravert. But what about the mechanics of your internet usage—how often you email others, chat online, stream media, or multi-task (switch from one application or website to another)? Can these behaviors—regardless of their content—also predict psychological characteristics? Recent research conducted by a team of computer scientists, engineers, and psychologists suggests that it might. Indeed, their data show that such analysis could predict a particularly important aspect of the self: the tendency to experience depression.
First, the research team asked over 200 volunteers to fill out a survey about “recent affective experiences;” what the volunteers didn’t know was that a well-known measure of depression—the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression (CES-D) scale—was embedded within this survey. The researchers then correlated scores on the hidden depression scale with individual trends in internet usage, grouped into three categories: “aggregate,” which indicated how much information was being sent and received over a network, “application,” which indicated the broad category of program that was being used (e.g., email, surfing the web, downloading media), and “entropy,” which indicated the degree of randomness in information flow (essentially, the extent to which someone was sending and receiving information to multiple net-based resources at once).
Again, researchers didn’t know what people were looking at on the internet (for example, depression support groups—a dead giveaway), but merely how they were using the internet. None of the data categories gave specific information about what websites people were visiting, the content of their emails or chats, or the types of files being downloaded—they simply indicated the extent to which people used different broad categories of net-based resources, as well as differences in people’s tendency to use many resources at once.
It turns out that very specific patterns of internet use are reliably related to depressive tendencies. For example, peer-to-peer file sharing, heavy emailing and chatting online, and a tendency to quickly switch between multiple websites and other online resources all predict a greater propensity to experience symptoms of depression. Although the exact reasons that these behaviors predict depression is unknown, each behavior corresponds with previous research on depression. Quickly switching between websites may reflect anhedonia (a decreased ability to experience emotions), as people desperately seek for emotional stimulation. Similarly, excessive emailing and chatting may signify a relative lack of strong face-to-face relationships, as people strive to maintain contact either with faraway friends or new people met online.
These data are particularly important for several reasons. Depression is both prevalent and dangerous. Recent estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicate that around 10 percent of adults in the United States currently suffer from clinical depression—depression that consists of symptoms such as disruptions in eating, sleeping, and concentration patterns, lack of interest in daily activities, and consistently feeling like a failure. These estimates are even higher for other segments of the population; for example, a 2011 report by the American College Health Association found that 30 percent of college students have “felt so depressed that it was difficult to function” within the past year.
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34 Comments
Add Comment"An intervention as simple as tracking internet use may allow depression, a prevalent and dangerous illness, to be discovered and treated earlier, more effectively, and for more people."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWho is going to do all this intervening and tracking of everyone's internet usage to flag depressed people ? Reading ridiculous S.I. articles like this one kinda depresses me. I wasted 5 minutes of my life I will never get back.
There will be a pop-up message saying your drugs are being mailed to you.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI'm with 13inches, except that I only wasted about 30 seconds.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHow comforting for, or expected of, the New World Order that they would find a "justification" for monitoring everyone's web browsing. So many attacks on careless dispersal of web site visits. So, now, they make it necessary. In the immediate shadow of the Aurora incident and the Sikh temple matter, both apparently also manufactured by the New World Order to pomote this, the "argument" is now being invoked to "circumvent" incidents like this. They will "argue" that, "because internet habits can reveal the mental status of an individual", a full active file of everyone's internet activity is crucial to prevent or handle events like these!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnd don't kid yourself that they aren't already uploading websites of various types to see which individuals frequent them so they can track them!
13inches huh? Overcompensate much?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnyway, just off the top of my head I'm thinking this is something that would be great for parents. A program could monitor your kids' web usage and let you know if their patterns are indicative of depression or not. Parents are often too busy just working to see all the little warning signs, especially when their kids are working hard to hide those warning signs, and many parents wouldn't know the warning signs of depression short of a suicide attempt. Lots of parents are already monitoring their kids' online usage (screening for predators, bullies, porn, etc) so this could be just a handy add-on module. Detect the warning signs of depression in your kids for just $3 - download from the App Store now!
It took me about 5 seconds to come up with a useful application for this research that to you seems a total waste. And while I was writing it up, it occurred to me that many people with depression don't realize they have it - so it'd be useful for self-diagnostics too! So there's 2 handy applications, neither of which require some third-party big brother organization to monitor everyone's web usage and send the SMS alerts that they need Prozac.
The failure, my friend, is not one of research or judgement, but rather a failure of imagination.
And the failure is yours, not SA's.
The article seemed a little simple-minded to me, too, but not threatening. Big Brother is too incompetent to do more than get confused if he tries to monitor <i>everybody's</i> Internet usage. I may be naive, but it sounds like the best use of it will simply be to check up on someone with problems with the person's permission.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOne reason I think the article simple-minded is that depression is far more complex than the article suggests, and not necessarily bad. As a poet who is certainly in and out of depression all the time, I tend to believe no really committed artist avoids it. I think of depression as being helplessly swept who-knows-where by one's environment, but--in the healthy--not permanently: one recovers (i.e., becomes again stronger than one's environment) with knowledge one could not have gotten any other way.
One perhaps interesting thought I had occurred to me when I read in the article about people who tried to conceal their depression: what about people who do the opposite, dramatically (perhaps even sincerely) boasting of having a depression when they don't? I don't think that's true of me, but it could be. Struggling dramatically with Great Sorrow may be a way to make oneself more interesting to others, and/or excuse one from acts of irresponsibility or the like, and/or suggest one is like some heroic depressive artist like van Gogh.
Scientists approved many years ago that depression is the desease of developed countries. If you have a goal in yore life you shouldn't scare the depression. It's a fact! In that case you have no time to worry about stupid things and you will be work hard to achieve your goal! That's why the best recipe from depression is make a big goal in your life!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMY FRIENDS knew I was depressed before I did.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSo, where is my Firefox plug-in that can be set to notify one or more of my contacts if I start to exhibit dangerous Internet behavior, hmmmmm? An opt-in plugin would be really cool for parents, who could drop it into their adolescent browsers in a very non-threatening way ("Hey, I don't need to know where you are browsing and emailing, just watchin' the rates and traffic.")
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this@some of the comments above: clearly they mean a personal use or parental use system (as suggested by another poster). Example: you see a pychiatrist and they ask that you install the program on your PC to help narrow and/or verify a diagnosis (if you are on the Internet a lot)
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDefinitely more research is needed as well as more effort to think and consider before commenting by most Internet users. Hmmmm, I wonder what the amount of elapsed time before commenting could be an indicator of? Definitely an inverse ratio to something.
> Derick In To
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisParents shouldn't be so overworked that they have no time for their children - that's symptomatic of a major wrong in society. Don't fix the symptom; address the cause.
When I was at home with my parents over 50 years ago this thing called Depression hadn't been invented.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWe did live for some time in "The Depression".
Have any of you heard of it?
That sort of thing would make the current generation depressed .
Wow! A quick easy way to over-diagnose depression. Just what the world needs right now, greater medicalisation of normal experience. Think about the statistics. If something is that common, it might not be nice, but is definitely normal.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisA tad simplistic - and I would have expected Scientific American to spell correctly (extravert, for pity's sake?).
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSimplistic because, while I tick many of the boxes, I have no MH problems other than occasional bouts of depression caused by the fact that I'm terminally ill (which tend to keep me offline, not ramp up my usage).
I use email and Twitter A LOT because I'm housebound (aphasia and impaired short-term memory preclude phone use), and I spend a lot of time browsing and switching between websites simply because I'm researching subjects for my blog.
Peachy.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBut I already know I am clinically depressed.
Maybe they could figure out a way to fix it instead of confirming something I already know...
Good article, distracting floaty thingy. Please get rid of it. There are better ways to get a Like. Thank you.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIn times such as these with an abundance of reasons to feel hopeless, ie: loss of jobs, loss of homes, et cetera it probably makes depression more commonplace than ever.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHowever, the Internet may in fact be one the greatest killing machines ever. Thus I think you missed the big questions: How many suicides have been attributed directly to Internet use and what is the increased percentage of depression with the advent of the Internet?
The term "social networking" is more often than not "anti-social networking" as many tend to go overboard and they don't usually use good manners, nor care about the caustic behavior they inflict upon others. For that one needs a suit of armor these days.
The article has its obvious benefits, yet more in-depth research is obviously needed.
New World Order, Masonry, Commies, Wetbacks, Die Grosse Bruder?...the conspiracy reflex is so much simpler than trying to uncover actual causation.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe one which really freaked me out was I was doing some research on the who what when where and why , of how the same sex orientaation came to be legal and I placed in Google the name of a politician including "homosexual" and a message came back.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"This was an inappropriate search and has been recorded."
We now have criminal investigations being thwarted by those very people who have broken the law ?
This ar,tickle is full of basic errors. First, anhedonia is the loss of ability to experience pleasure, not emotion which is depersonalization. Second, the vast majority of people who commit suicide have made gestures or statements about suicide In the past. Research on suicide clearly shows that it coincides with a breakdown of communication. When the person feels that no one is listening, or that they cannot express what they are feeling so others understand, they are likely to make a serious attempt. Wegner's work on ironic processes clearly indicates that hospitalized patients report fewer depressed thoughts at discharge than the general population but the suppression of those thoughts cannot be maintained when their attention is engaged by normal activities of living. Given these well established facts do we really need " implicit measures?" What is needed are clinicians who THINK instead of reaching for a protocol or new test in some knee jerk manner.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOnce this technology is perfected, authorities could get a warrant to use it for people considered to be an immediate threat to herself or others. The results would have to be treated with safeguards--like any other health information. If this option were available to the VA they could be saving many lives.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMany people who are suicidal want to be saved. Many would be willing to use the software voluntarily and be relieved of the impossible task of trying to tell their dr/therapist how desperate they feel.
Even the best-intentioned therapists and doctors cannot read the minds of patients or anticipate their behavior.
The worst therapists are so abusive they increase the risk of suicide. All therapists should be required to submit anonymous results of a reliable objective test (such as this) to their patients. Patterns of increased suicidality should trigger an investigation of the therapist by an oversight committee.
More uses: doctors/therapists could ask people to connect to the Internet via in-house computers before appointments. Suicide watch/depression evaluation "software" prescriptions could be written by doctors, therapists and psychiatrists or be required with meds that come with a risk of suicide. Mental hospitals could use patient use of in-house computers to help determine who is ready for release and who is not getting enough help.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI'm depressed because I get good information and news about what this country does in our name, because I use the internet and many good international news sites.
The alternative is to live stupid and happy watching only what comes on main-stream media news ("Oh, they hate us for our freedom!")
TY, but I prefer the truth over ignorance.
Use AdBlock Plus.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this1. Open Filter Preferences
2. Click "Custom Filter" tab.
3. Click "Add Filter Group."
4. Enter "SciAm Annoyance."
5. Click "Actions," then select "Show/Hide Filters."
6. Click "Add Filter."
7. Enter:
##div#shareFloat
8. Click "Close"
Refresh the page. All done ;-)
It appears many of you who have commented do not realize what's involved in scientific research. The researchers test ONE HYPOTHESIS (a very narrowed-down question) and then create an appropriate way to measure the things they are considering. This is not "big brother." It's a couple of intelligent scientists trying to determine if someone's Internet usage can suggest depression. Personally, I go with anhedonia, because I have depression and some days I'm just looking for sites that might spark my interest and creativity, which gives me hope that I WILL recover, and gives me IDEAS to overcome it. I must add that when I find the Internet itself too depressing, I go do something else. Mindless surfing of the Internet is no different than constantly changing the channels on the TV, never really watching anything.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe research itself is never "simplistic." There's a ton of work involved that you skeptics don't realize. Even "small indicators" like this study nevertheless contribute to our body of scientific knowledge. It's valuable because it can also open a gateway into other areas of research. If you are someone who is going to diss SciAm for posting research results, why do you bother coming to the site and reading their material at all?
The remedy for depression is creativity. So if you're depressed and on the Internet reading this, get off the Internet and go make something. =)
Create something. Make, bake, cook, sew, woodwork, handcraft, whatever! That's the remedy for depression. Seriously.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI get depressed reading what's going on in the world, too. So stop reading the news. Focus on your own life instead. You might feel depressed about the news because you feel powerless and impotent to do anything about it, unable to help change how it is. It's not about being ignorant, it's about living YOUR LIFE. So go do it.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis sounds more like your computer has either some parental controls enabled, or an application installed that monitors and/or prevents your access of certain sites. Highly unlikely it's the government.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYep! A good goal, and creative action. You nailed it!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhich came first, the internet habits or the depression?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisGuess that's a question for another study...
This makes perfect sense unless you're a mental health therapist who frequently surfs the web to locate information about a host of emotional problems and uses email as part of business interactions.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisin summary: first world problems. are you guys running low on material?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDepression is a complex deadly disease and I believe that most depressives (due to the fact that they may be depressed) would steer clear of using the internet just as most depressed persons isolate in most areas in their life. Personally,this study seems to be extremely sophomoric .
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAvec votre accord j'ai relayé en français vos info sur
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://fr.calameo.com/books/0013433885f7c247fa446
Regards
ft
Seems to be the way most teenagers use the net. Does that mean all teenagers are depressed? Doesn't work that easily for me, but hey, maybe I am depressed.
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