Those who regularly check a “happy” friend's profile feel bad about their lives

Jan 22, 2013 13:14 GMT  ·  By
Study finds Facebook can make people feel depressed and dissatisfied with their lives
   Study finds Facebook can make people feel depressed and dissatisfied with their lives

This past Monday, a team of German researchers working with Berlin's Humboldt University and Darmstadt's Technical University made it public news that Facebook must be held accountable for making people feel both dissatisfied with their lives and jealous of their seemingly more successful friends.

To cut a long story short, it looks like more than 30% of those who spend considerable amounts of time checking out other people's holiday photos and happy comments experience envy.

More often than not, this envy has to do with the fact that such pictures and comments are linked by the person who sees and reads them to a fabulous life and a great job, Daily Mail reports.

As specialist Hanna Krasnova from the Humboldt University explains, “We have scientifically demonstrated that online networks provided access to lots of positive news and profiles from successful 'friends' that trigger jealousy.”

“Success, talents and possessions lead to reactions of envy. Envy can proliferate in social networks and be intensified through passive tracking,” Hanna Krasnova went on to add.

Because of this, the German researchers who have looked into this issue wish to draw attention to the fact that those spending too much time on sites such as Facebook run the risk of becoming both socially isolated and depressed.

Needless to say, this can ultimately lead to their mental health being considerably affected.

What Facebook users must remember is that it often happens that a person's Facebook profile only brings forth the positive aspects of one's life, and leaves out all the rest.

Thus, one must not work on the assumption that those “happy” friends are really as happy as they wish to make people believe they are.

“'Everyone who is posting is always trying to depict themselves as well as possible and therefore the posts are predominantly positive,” the researchers write in their study.