Temple Professor Offers Tips To Keep Facebook From Giving You The Blues
By Hadas Kuznits
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Facebook can be a way to express oneself, but there are also some guidelines you can use to avoid heartache.
Frank Farley, a psychologist at Temple University and former president of the American Psychological association says expressing oneself on Facebook can have its pros and cons.
"I think that it's a very mixed bag." He says there are some factors to consider when writing a post. The first is what he calls 'migration.'
"You post certain things and you don't know where they're going to end up."
Or soliciting advice online, "some of that advice may not be good advice," says Farley.
He says some posts that attract negative comments can be of concern.
"That will make you feel worse than if you never posted at all."
And another popular type of posting to consider has to do with over-sharing.
"Sometimes you do it impulsively and it may be hurtful to yourself. Could it influence how people think about you?"
Farley says any notion of someone planning to hurt themselves or others should be taken seriously but expression on Facebook isn't necessarily bad.
"We're in an age of self revelation which has been driven by the internet and psychologically I don't think we know where that's going to end up, it's so radically different than earlier times."
