DailyTech - Facebook Envy Leads to Depression for Some

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Internet Facebook Envy Leads to Depression for Some
Shane McGlaun (Blog) - January 23, 2013 8:30 AM

36 comment(s) - last by michael1_4.. on Jan 24 at 10:54 PM

(Source: Getty Images)

Envy is rampant on Facebook

A recent study conducted by two German universities has found that envy is rampant on Facebook. According to the researchers, one in three people felt worse after visiting Facebook and more dissatisfied with their lives. The researchers also claim people who browse the website without contributing were affected the most.

"We were surprised by how many people have a negative experience from Facebook, with envy leaving them feeling lonely, frustrated or angry," a researcher Hanna Krasnova from the Institute of Information Systems at Humboldt University in Berlin told Reuters.

The two colleges that participated in the study are Humboldt University and Technical University in Darmstadt, Germany. Researchers participating in the study found that vacation photos were the biggest source of resentment with half of all so-called envy incidents triggered by vacation photos posted to Facebook.

Another significant source of envy according to the study is social interaction. The second most common source of envy was caused by people comparing how many birthday greetings they received to those of Facebook friends or how many likes and comments were made on their photos and posts.

Source: Chicago Tribune

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WTF

By Brandon Hill

(blog) on 1/23/2013 8:41:18 AM , Rating: 5

quote:
The second most common source of envy was caused by people comparing how many birthday greetings they received to those of Facebook friends

Are you freaking kidding me?

RE: WTF

By euclidean on 1/23/2013 8:46:59 AM , Rating: 2

I believe it...have you met the people who use Facebook?

:)

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RE: WTF

By GulWestfale on 1/23/2013 9:13:13 AM , Rating: 3

http://imgur.com/mcwT89q

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RE: WTF

By kattanna on 1/23/2013 10:40:29 AM , Rating: 2

sadly.. thats not an uncommon sight anymore

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RE: WTF

By cubby1223 on 1/23/2013 10:56:24 AM , Rating: 2

that was the very image of my Thanksgiving holiday...

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RE: WTF

By Boardwell on 1/23/2013 11:50:33 AM , Rating: 2

Facebook, bring us closer together by pushing us apart.

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RE: WTF

By Paj on 1/24/2013 8:21:54 AM , Rating: 2

I have. All 1 billion of them. They're all the same!

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RE: WTF

By Flunk on 1/23/2013 9:13:17 AM , Rating: 2

Birthday greetings are the primary source of merit on Facebook. Which is why I always make sure to add one to everyone I know.

It's a pain, but if you keep your "friends" list to actual friends only it works.

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RE: WTF

By schmandel on 1/23/13, Rating: 0

RE: WTF

By xti on 1/23/2013 10:24:33 AM , Rating: 2

being a way that you never forget a friends bday is great and makes FB worth it alone.

incoming "i know my true friends and FACEBOOK SLEPT WITH MY MOM"

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RE: WTF

By Luticus on 1/23/2013 5:56:52 PM , Rating: 2

quote:
being a way that you never forget a friends bday is great and makes FB worth it alone.

Yea... I'm not saying facebook is good or bad here, but my cellphone from like 10 years ago did this. In fact so has every digitized calendar/organizer pretty much ever.

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RE: WTF

By xti on 1/23/2013 9:16:35 PM , Rating: 2

your cell phone didnt gather the data for you, nor took away the need for you to manually type it in.

its not just a spreadsheet, its a database :)

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RE: WTF

By TSS on 1/23/2013 11:47:09 AM , Rating: 2

It's a good thing we've used all this technology to make it a pain to wish your actual friends a happy birthday, isn't it?

I wonder when people started having such a problem with the fact that the world just doesn't care about them.

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RE: WTF

By exanimas on 1/23/2013 1:19:53 PM , Rating: 2

quote:
I wonder when people started having such a problem with the fact that the world just doesn't care about them.

Probably around the same time people started getting "famous" for posting their opinions on YouTube.

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Not surprising...and sad

By Ytsejamer1 on 1/23/2013 8:52:35 AM , Rating: 2

My wife (I love her to pieces) lives on Facebook...she's always complaining about this person's updates, or that person's events, or someone else's business, etc. It's kind of sad that people get all riled up about what is essentially, a bunch of nonsense that has absolutely zero bearing in your immediate day to day life.

A lot of folks are using FB as some sort of validation...and if the fickle interweb masses don't flock to a "funny" status update or respond to whatever, they're feeling unfulfilled in some way. HOW EFFING SAD IS THAT?!?!?!? Life is right in front of us and we have people getting all distraught about what complete strangers or at best, acquaintances think about what you had for lunch.

This little quote from Brady Quinn (after the KC Chief football player shot himself after killing his family) was spot on and certainly worth reposting:

“We live in a society of social networks, with Twitter pages and Facebook, and that’s fine, but we have contact with our work associates, our family, our friends, and it seems like half the time we are more preoccupied with our phone and other things going on instead of the actual relationships that we have right in front of us. Hopefully, people can learn from this and try to actually help if someone is battling something deeper on the inside than what they are revealing on a day-to-day basis.”

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/12/03/br...

RE: Not surprising...and sad

By piroroadkill on 1/23/2013 9:01:48 AM , Rating: 1

It'd wind me up to be with someone who used facebook all the time. Fuck that.

I don't use facebook, twitter, er.. whatever else is fashionable, and nor does my girlfriend of nearly ~3 years.

You just don't need that crap - there's already enough information being thrown at you as it is without seeking and sharing more, and not just more, but more USELESS information about pointless minutiae.

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RE: Not surprising...and sad

By Brandon Hill

(blog) on 1/23/2013 9:13:29 AM , Rating: 4

quote:
I don't use facebook, twitter, er.. whatever else is fashionable, and nor does my girlfriend of nearly ~3 years.

Not a fan of Twitter, but I do use Facebook. It's a good way to keep up with family (only my parents and I live in NC; the rest of my entire family lives in Maryland) and friends.

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RE: Not surprising...and sad

By Schrag4 on 1/23/2013 1:31:30 PM , Rating: 2

You're right, FB is a great tool to keep in touch, but like many things in life, it can be abused. I'm not on FB (well, my wife is so really I am too) so I don't know what percentage of people use it to communicate with people they know vs what percentage of people LIVE on FB.

I suppose there are many more descructive habbits one could have. Do I want my wife addicted to FB? No, but if I had a choice I'd rather she be addicted to FB than to something that will destroy her life in a more tangible way, like alcohol (again, just fine in moderation). She's not really abusing FB much anyway. She mostly keeps up with people she really knows IRL but I sometimes have to ask her why she cares about the opinions of people she hasn't seen in 15 years.

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RE: Not surprising...and sad

By arazok on 1/23/2013 11:02:45 AM , Rating: 2

I’m in the same boat. My wife is a wonderful person, but she’s been a stay at home mom for 4 years now and she’s going loopy. She’s on FB 24/7 making updates nobody cares to see, and gets pissed off if people poke fun at her for it. She’d fall into the Birthday post nut category too.

She doesn’t get depressed about anything on FB, she gets angry. And it’s always about he said/she said drama stuff that doesn’t matter.

I’m beginning to believe that women need a source of conflict/BS in their lives. And if they don’t get it from work, they invent it in their minds.

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RE: Not surprising...and sad

By kattanna on 1/23/2013 11:47:17 AM , Rating: 2

you should walk by her one day and say.."oh.. your going to wear that?" casually and keep walking

that will give her something to stew over

LOL

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RE: Not surprising...and sad

By xti on 1/23/2013 11:50:16 AM , Rating: 2

too subtle...just say she is growing a bodonka dunk

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RE: Not surprising...and sad

By arazok on 1/23/2013 12:45:11 PM , Rating: 2

BAHA!

Yeah, I’ll take her illusionary frustrations directed towards an illusionary world, over real ones directed towards me.

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RE: Not surprising...and sad

By Paj on 1/24/2013 8:30:28 AM , Rating: 2

Facebook doesn't cause people to react negatively to the success of their friends. Chances are that if you're the type of person to react negatively to someone's good news on facebook, then you'd do the same in real life.

What facebook can do (especially through overuse) is amplify those feelings if they already exist. If you suffer from anxiety, jealousy or any number of other mental afflictions, facebook probably wont help you.

It's a similar argument with many drugs. Pot doesn't cause schizophrenia, but it may trigger it in those who have a susceptibility to it.

Personally, I use facebook because it makes thing convenient for me. I have reconnected with old school friends in other countries that I haven't seen for over a decade, can see pictures of my new nephews and nieces on the day they were born, keep track of any upcoming social events, and a lot more.

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paragraph 2 rocks

By The Imir of Groofunkistan on 1/23/2013 9:07:13 AM , Rating: 4

I love paragraph 2: ""We were surprised by how many people have a negative experience from Facebook, with envy leaving them feeling lonely, frustrated or angry," researcher Hanna Krasnova from the Institute of Information Systems at Humboldt University in Berlin told Reuters."

but, it just can't compare with paragraph 3: ""We were surprised by how many people have a negative experience from Facebook, with envy leaving them feeling lonely, frustrated or angry," researcher Hanna Krasnova from the Institute of Information Systems at Humboldt University in Berlin told Reuters."

RE: paragraph 2 rocks

By euclidean on 1/23/2013 9:09:47 AM , Rating: 2

I re-read the article twice because something didn't seem right...still didn't catch this...hilarious!

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RE: paragraph 2 rocks

By The Imir of Groofunkistan on 1/23/2013 9:41:18 AM , Rating: 2

looks like they fixed it now :)

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There is a reason...

By Beenthere on 1/23/2013 10:18:40 AM , Rating: 2

...why it's called FARCEbook! There is also a reason why some people are depressed becasue they don't get as many FARCEbook birthday cards as their friends on FARCEbook. The reason is because people who are on FARCEbook are IDIOTS - all of them. Like sheeple to the slaughter house, the clueless just go along with the crowds of other clueless, hopeless, vain, fools on FARCEbook.

RE: There is a reason...

By wordsworm on 1/23/2013 11:30:27 AM , Rating: 2

I can see that you're one of the ones who doesn't get birthday wishes through FB. btw, it's Facebook, not Farcebook. Please check your spelling and try your comment again.

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RE: There is a reason...

By Dr of crap on 1/23/2013 12:37:38 PM , Rating: 2

Didn't catch the fact that each time FARCEbook was in caps?

It's a joke / pun on words.

Might be above your head I'd guess!

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wah.

By Motoman on 1/23/2013 11:24:04 AM , Rating: 3

Hey, if you're vapid enough to use FB in the first place, all bets are off on your emotional state. Want to feel better? Stop using FB, you idiot.

Facebook Gives False Impressions

By dashrendar on 1/23/2013 12:01:48 PM , Rating: 3

People need to realize that Facebook gives a false impression about other people out there. Someone could have cancer and post a single photo at some great party. Another could post a photo of a newly owned very expensive sports car but they're knee-deep in debt. Would you still feel envious? This is the problem with Facebook. It's a series of highly controlled snapshots of someone's life. Real life is continuous, consisting of all the good, the bad and the disgusting.

Next time you see a hot girl's photo on Facebook, remember that at some point she will enter a bathroom and she will defecate like a frickin' animal.

Go Eat Worms..

By TacticalTrading on 1/23/2013 8:49:25 AM , Rating: 2

Nobody likes me
Everybody hates me
I think I'll go eat worms!
Big fat juicy ones
Eensie weensy squeensy ones
See how they wiggle and squirm!

.......

Me: Facebook makes me depressed
Shrink: So what do you do after you get depressed?
Me: Watch some TV, eat some Ice cream...
Shrink: Humm... And how does that make you feel?
Me: Not good, So I go check my Facebook Page to cheer me up.

YEA!

By Dr of crap on 1/23/2013 12:29:07 PM , Rating: 2

I SOOOoooooo glad I'm not on this piece of terd of a web site.

You'll find the stupid EVERYWHERE!

Meh. . .

By LieutenantCrunch on 1/23/2013 2:50:10 PM , Rating: 2

I don't see anything wrong with being jealous or envious of friends who get to do cool things and post pictures of it, as long as it doesn't lead to a dark place. My friends post pictures of vacations in Hawaii, Europe, or wherever and sure I'm jealous, but I get to go cool places and do cool things too, so it doesn't make me depressed. Sometimes disappointed that I missed out on something, but chances are I would hear about it from a friend anyway, so the fact I saw it on facebook is meaningless.

I'm likely to believe the same people who get depressed by facebook probably would have been depressed for for another reason instead if FB wasn't around.

While I use it mainly to keep up with friends and family, working in a freelance capacity, over the past couple of years it has also turned into a tool for me to use to keep up with former co-workers and employers to be notified when potential work is available.

No one is forcing anyone

By michael1_4 on 1/24/2013 10:54:00 PM , Rating: 2

No one is forcing anyone to be on facebook. If you don't like it then don't go on it. There seems to be a trend where some people think they are superior to others because they don't have a facebook account, as if they are too good for facebook. My thinking is if you don't want to go on don't. The last thing anyone needs is that friend that is always complaining on facebook. So if you're not into it just stay off of it. The world will go on without you. The world doesn't revolve around you so if you don't join facebook the rest of us will be ok. We'll make it through it. LOL

Thank you

By capitanoensy on 1/23/13, Rating: -1

"It's okay. The scenarios aren't that clear. But it's good looking. [Steve Jobs] does good design, and [the iPad] is absolutely a good example of that." -- Bill Gates on the Apple iPad