We all enjoy and are sometimes hooked on Facebook and other social media outlets.
We love to hear the news of others and be informed of their birthdays, weddings, vacations and more. Through Facebook we find “lost” friends and keep in touch with family members living in distant countries. Once in a while we also encounter educational or entertaining posts which we can enjoy and learn from. Most of you will read this article on social media.
We are most grateful to Mark Zuckerberg for this great connectivity tool.
Yet, social media also has a dark side of which people are unaware. Facebook can affect our self-image in a negative way.
Facebook posts almost always depict the happy moments of individuals, families, and friends – birthday parties, vacations, weddings, and restaurant meals. Everyone is smiling as they take pride in their achievements or those of their family members. They congratulate one another on various occasions. They “like” us as we show off our diplomas and trophies.
Almost always, we see people having good times with friends and family. Everyone is laughing and smiling.
This can leave the wrong impression that those whom we see on Facebook are always carefree, having a great time, enjoying their successes. This can put a damper on our mood, self-worth, and self-esteem; especially as we consider our failures, problems, sad moments, and broken relationships. Our self-image can get another hit if we compare the number of “Likes”, “Shares” and comments we receive with those of others. We may look pale compared to those “popular” figures who collect hundreds of likes and countless positive comments to their posts.
If we are not conscious of Social Media psychology, we can easily conclude that we are the only one who has problems and sad moments.
The key reality of Social Media is that people do not post their problems on FB. We do not see pictures of those happily pictured couples arguing with each other or about the failures of their children. I have never seen a post about someone being reprimanded by this boss or losing his or her job. We don’t see pictures of people sitting lonely at home or being dumped by their fiancée. Yet, the fact of the matter is that everybody faces life challenges and difficulties.
Comparing ourselves to the one-sided social media posts of our friends is neither healthy nor of any help.
Next time you get envious scrolling through your FB feed, please consider that there will always be those who are better off than you. The other side of reality is that there are probably many more who are in far worse situations than you are. And, yes, that includes those who appear to be deeply in love and happily married.
Author: Harout Nercessian
Translator: Christina Simonyan
