Did Facebook Hurt People's Feelings? : The New Yorker

Final paragraph from a thoughtful Facebook reality check

"One potential usage, which has already been tested on a social network, is to mine large sets of posts for signs of mental illness or depression. At this year’s Society for Personality and Social Psychology conference, a team from Microsoft discussed a study in which they had been using posts on Twitter to predict the risk of postpartum depression in pregnant women and new mothers. In that case, Berkman pointed out, the benefits likely outweigh the risks. While the cost of a false positive—telling someone that she is at greater risk of depression when she’s not—is high, the cost of missing the signs of mental illness is potentially even bigger. Microsoft’s research, in his mind, is an example of a good use of social networks for research. “Let’s let the data tell us something we can’t normally tell,” Berkman said, “and that you may not even know about yourself.”"

Did Facebook Hurt People's Feelings? : The New Yorker