FaceBook makes you dissatisfied

Facebook can make you feel envious of your “successful" friends, leading to frustration and dissatisfaction, study finds.

Facebook can make you feel envious of your "successful' friends, leading to frustration and dissatisfaction, study finds

33% respondents in the German study reported predominantly negative feelings such as frustration. The researchers identified that envying their 'Facebook friends' is the major reason for this result

20% of all recent on-line/offline events that had provoked envy among the respondents took place within a Facebook context

Paradoxically, envy can frequently lead to users embellishing their Facebook profiles with exaggerated information, which, in turn, provokes envy among other users, a phenomenon that the researchers have termed 'envy spiral'.

'Access to copious positive news and the profiles of seemingly successful 'friends' fosters social comparison that can readily provoke envy.' —Dr Hanna Krasnova of the Humboldt-Universitat zu Berlin