Your smartphone knows when you're depressed

(Image credit: iStock)

You can hide your feelings from friends and family, but new preliminary research suggests you may not be able to hide from your own smartphone. In a Journal of Medical Internet Research study published this week, Northwestern University researchers found data collected from a smartphone can predict the user's feelings of depression with 86.5 percent accuracy.

The 28 study participants downloaded an app that tracked their GPS data and phone usage for two weeks. Participants who self-identified as depressed spent an average of 68 minutes on their phone each day, compared to 17 minutes for non-depressed users. People with depressed also went fewer places.

"One of the things we see when people are depressed is that people tend to start avoiding tasks or things they have to do, particularly when they’re uncomfortable," study author David Mohr told Time. "Using the phone, going in and using an app, is kind of a distraction."

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Julie Kliegman is a freelance writer based in New York. Her work has appeared in BuzzFeed, Vox, Mental Floss, Paste, the Tampa Bay Times and PolitiFact. Her cats can do somersaults.