Although Facebook has now become a crucial part of our social lives, it may not be the best thing for our self esteem.
A new study suggests that spending a lot of time on Facebook comparing your life to your friends’ lives could lead to depression, according to USA Today.
“Facebook often gives us information about our friends that we are not normally privy to, which gives us even more opportunities to socially compare,” stated University of Houston researcher Mai-Ly Steers.
The basic use of Facebook isn’t what causes the “depressive symptoms” found in the recent study.
“It doesn’t mean Facebook causes depression, but that depressed feelings and lots of time on Facebook and comparing oneself to others tend to go hand in hand,” explained Steers.
The researcher continued, “One danger is that Facebook often gives us information about our friends that we are not normally privy to, which gives us even more opportunities to socially compare. You can’t really control the impulse to compare because you never know what your friends are going to post. In addition, most of our Facebook friends tend to post about the good things that occur in their lives, while leaving out the bad. If we're comparing ourselves to our friends' 'highlight reels,' this may lead us to think their lives are better than they actually are and conversely, make us feel worse about our own lives."
The study puts emphasis on the fact that the constant technological advances are not always positive for our society, according to the U.K’s The Independent.
“Although social comparison processes have been examined at length in traditional contexts, the literature is only beginning to explore social comparisons in online social network settings,” stated Steers.
