Looks like it. I’m sure someone coined the term before me, but I call this the ‘facebook effect’–and it’s not pretty. It’s where you see how AWESOME everyone else’s lives are and how yours is not and then you fall into the comparison trap. Here’s some of the latest research:
More than a third of the respondents reported feeling negative, but it had nothing to do with Facebook’s ever-changing privacy policies and advertisements—most of those bad vibes were rooted in jealousy . . . We were surprised by how many people have a negative experience from Facebook, with envy leaving them feeling lonely, frustrated or angry . . . The fact that we spend so much time on Facebook means that our petty retaliations take place there as well. Users who felt jealous of their friends’ status updates, photos, and life events often dealt with it by exaggerating their own accomplishments, posting unrealistically pretty profile shots, and sharing over-the-top status updates. That, in turn led other Facebook friends to feel jealous and inadequate—something the researchers dubbed an ‘envy spiral.’ All of that virtual envy creates a real-life problem: Users end up feeling dissatisfied with their own lives.
None of us are immuned form this stuff. We must as Solomon encouraged, “Guard our heart, for from it flow springs of life” (Prov. 4:23).
Read the rest of this article here.
One way to redeem your use of Facebook is steward the resources available there; Would you consider giving the Think Christianly Facebook page a like?
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