With more than one billion people using it now, Facebook is not just a social networking site but a phenomenon that is influencing our lives significantly. A study done by sociologists Hui-Tzu Grace Chou and Nicholas Edge in 2012 at Utah Valley University revealed that those who have used Facebook longer agreed more that others were happier, and agreed less that life is fair, and those spending more time on Facebook each week agreed more that others were happier and had better lives. Research also suggests that more than 30% of Facebook users end up getting depressed. It's alarming how Facebook is actually making us more sad and depressed about ourselves!
Let’s enter the world of Facebook. People, especially teenagers, spent hours in making their profile pages look better. All they are creating is a false and misleading image of their lives, be it intentionally or in-intentionally. It’s actually true that we only post about the happy moments of our life but by downplaying our sad stories and disappointments, we are sharing incomplete picture of our life with someone who is going through our Facebook page. And when we are browsing through success stories of our friends, their achievements, their eloquent kids, their beautiful families, their luxury lives, their vacations pictures, their well-paid jobs, on the surface we might seem to be happy for them but deep down inside some of us can’t help comparing our own lives with them and becoming more conscious of our own short-comings. We feel envious, miserable and sometimes even lonely with lot of people feeling a bit worse too. Within this world of instant connection and communication, we feel alienated questioning ourselves: Am I the only one whose life is uninteresting and unsuccessful?
While Facebook is a great way to stay connected to friends and family, it is getting really difficult to stay happy and content in this connected world. The solution is to realize that what we are looking at is an incomplete picture of someone’s life portrayed by a virtual world. If you were to meet same friend in person, they will actually reveal many interesting things about their life that are not on Facebook. Also, the time we collectively waste on Facebook can be spent much more meaningfully. Rather than posting some random quote of a random person no one has ever heard of, or a picture of a cat yawning or skimming through profile pages of your friends all day, talk to them to know what is really going on in their lives. Tell a story to your grandmother. Tell your parents how your day was. Appreciate what your siblings did. Buy a present for someone. Help someone in need. Read a book...
Facebook connection is neither a bond nor a ticket to a happier life or a better world. It is high time we realize that there is no substitute for leaving your computer or Smartphone behind and forge deep and meaningful connections with real human beings. Let’s start doing things that will make us really happy and a better human being eventually.
Let’s enter the world of Facebook. People, especially teenagers, spent hours in making their profile pages look better. All they are creating is a false and misleading image of their lives, be it intentionally or in-intentionally. It’s actually true that we only post about the happy moments of our life but by downplaying our sad stories and disappointments, we are sharing incomplete picture of our life with someone who is going through our Facebook page. And when we are browsing through success stories of our friends, their achievements, their eloquent kids, their beautiful families, their luxury lives, their vacations pictures, their well-paid jobs, on the surface we might seem to be happy for them but deep down inside some of us can’t help comparing our own lives with them and becoming more conscious of our own short-comings. We feel envious, miserable and sometimes even lonely with lot of people feeling a bit worse too. Within this world of instant connection and communication, we feel alienated questioning ourselves: Am I the only one whose life is uninteresting and unsuccessful?
While Facebook is a great way to stay connected to friends and family, it is getting really difficult to stay happy and content in this connected world. The solution is to realize that what we are looking at is an incomplete picture of someone’s life portrayed by a virtual world. If you were to meet same friend in person, they will actually reveal many interesting things about their life that are not on Facebook. Also, the time we collectively waste on Facebook can be spent much more meaningfully. Rather than posting some random quote of a random person no one has ever heard of, or a picture of a cat yawning or skimming through profile pages of your friends all day, talk to them to know what is really going on in their lives. Tell a story to your grandmother. Tell your parents how your day was. Appreciate what your siblings did. Buy a present for someone. Help someone in need. Read a book...
Facebook connection is neither a bond nor a ticket to a happier life or a better world. It is high time we realize that there is no substitute for leaving your computer or Smartphone behind and forge deep and meaningful connections with real human beings. Let’s start doing things that will make us really happy and a better human being eventually.