SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) – Facebook is how we network, make new friends and catch up with old friends. But, social networking can also be making you sad, depressed and even angry. A
study by Stanford University dubbed the psychological impact as “Facebook Envy.”
Facebook Envy magnifies loneliness and can spark some pretty serious emotions. The virtual socializing venue has people following updates on hundreds and even thousands of close friends, acquaintances and sometimes flat out strangers.
“It's become a bit of a contest and kids will look on and say, how many friends do you have? Well I've got 685 friends on Facebook. We'd be better off calling them acquaintances,” said Douglas Goldsmith, Executive Director of The Children’s Center.
Goldsmith says it’s important to take a minute and try to rationalize why you are obsessed with looking at other people’s lives and make sure you distinguish between what’s real and what may be a little exaggerated
“And if we sit back we appreciate that that was just two seconds of a 24 hour day that were just thrown on to facebook,” said Goldsmith.
But, for the depressed, checking out smiling, beachfront pictures, doesn’t help the mood. In fact, the Stanford Study suggests it actually adds to the feelings of loneliness and self pity.
“Everybody's having a great day, everybody's thrilled because the sun's out, everybody's on the beach having marvelous vacations except for me,” said Goldsmith.
Psychologists often use boundary circles to break down intimate relationships into 12 groups:
- Stranger
- Informal Acquaintance
- Casual Acquaintance
- Association
- Casual Friend
- Close Friend
- Dating
- Committed Dating
- Engagement
- Marriage
- Intimate Marriage
- Soul Mates
Unguarded posts or page-peeking can render these boundaries nearly useless.
The study says people are rarely going to post details of misfortunes helping create a positive public persona.
“Families, parents, children, spouses, have to sit down and start discussing what is the role of media in our lives. How are we controlling it and how is it controlling us,” said Goldmsith.
Goldsmith says to keep meaningful, personal relationships with close friends. Take daily posts from acquaintances with a grain of salt. And always remember the only thing in your control is what you post. Once you put a thought into cyberspace you have to be prepared to handle the consequences.
