Table 5.

Qualitative Data Regarding Adaptive and Maladaptive Facebook Uses Based on Transcriptions

Question 1: How do you tend to use Facebook when you are in a negative mood?
Category of use (n)	Examples of use
Using Facebook less (n=3)	“I tend to log on less often when I’m in a bad mood, I think…. cause I realize that there’s not really much to do and I don’t play games on Facebook.” “My attitude to the whole thing is very restrictive because I feel like I can’t talk about it.”
Log on more/stay on Facebook for longer (n=6)	“My use of Facebook is more amplified when I’m feeling negatively… the way I use it reinforces negative feelings rather than mitigating them.” “When I’m upset, like I said, I’ll constantly check it. I’ll either type something or talk to somebody so I feel like I use it a lot more when I’m upset.”
Focus more on positive material and limit examination of negative material (n=3)	“I try to limit my viewing of people’s pages that start drama… I try to go on funny stuff… because I don’t want to see somebody’s status that’s going to make me feel worse than I already felt.”
Negatively interpret information or take things personally (n=4)	“When I’m down, it has more of an effect on my mood.” “When I’m not feeling good and others are well, it makes me feel worse.” “Sometimes you read something and instead of taking it in positively, you take it in negatively and it’s because of your mood.”
Ruminate on viewed material	“It makes me feel worse… because after I log off Facebook, I still sit there and think about the problem.”
Question 2: How do you tend to use Facebook when you are in a positive mood?
Use Facebook more and/or increased engagement in Facebook material (n=5)	“When I’m in a good mood, I post happy go lucky stuff.” “I put [up] something positive I like.” “Using Facebook makes me even happier because I can share what’s funny or interesting.” “When I’m in a good mood… I’ll sit there and look at what people are posting instead of just skimming through it or just not caring.”
Log onto Facebook less and/or decreased engagement in Facebook material (n=5)	“If I think I’m happy or in a good mood, I don’t care as much about Facebook” “If I’m happy or there’s nothing really bothering me, I won’t log on a lot” “If it’s a decent day for myself… I don’t feel the urgency or the need to go on.”
Question 3: How does Facebook use hurt your mood?
Have negative interactions (n=4)	“If I use Facebook when I’m upset and… no one’s interested, then I feel even more disconnected.”
Serve as reminder of social isolation (n =3)	“If you see something that happened or something that your friends did that you weren’t involved in, that could make you feel left out.”
Provide cues for rumination, reminder of negative memories (n =5)	“It makes you think about things you wouldn’t normally think about… 10 years ago, if I went through a break-up, I wouldn’t know what my ex-boyfriend was doing every hour of every day, but… I know what he’s doing all the time… if you’re upset about something involving another person, you can go on and see all their posts and their pictures and obsess over it and it tends to make you feel worse.” “Some things I may see that my boyfriend had posted can make me upset… having less contact with him, I overanalyze things.”
View negative, ignorant, or irritating information (n=4)	“When I just see some ignorant people posting a lot of crap.” “Derogatory pictures of something or pictures of not good taste.”
Engage in negative social comparison (n=3)	“I think one of the evils of it is that you often compare yourself to other people and that can only usually make you feel bad… and that’s not hard to do.” “Just when you see people having so much fun or are on vacation and you’re not… it makes me in a sad mood or upset.”
Question 4: How does Facebook use help your mood? What suggestions do you have on what would make an intervention on Facebook useful or helpful? What suggestions do you have on what would make an intervention on Facebook easy to use or apply during your everyday Facebook use?
Distraction (n=13)	View positive, funny, or inspirational material Use to stay up-to-date with information View concrete information regarding how to improve mood Direct individuals to avoid negative information and limit interactions to only “positive” people Use Facebook-embedded games or activities
Social support (n=14)	Create support groups to allow sharing of information (eg, coping skills, available resources) Use to increase awareness of offline social events Encourage positive social interaction with one’s network Use as forum to learn of others who have had similar experiences and how they have coped Garner encouragement and motivation from others to be active See friends who are doing well
Easy accessibility (n=6)	Make easy to access and to remember to use when logging into Facebook Integrate mobile component