Appearance of Facebook

I have a hypothesis.

I hypothesize that our dearly beloved Facebook is making us more self-centered and aware of how we appear to other people.

In this case, appearance not only applies to looks, but also to emotions.

Because on Facebook, we "friend" people we barely know and allow them to look at our "personal" information, then proceed to complain when someone "stalks" our "profile."

It's all very rather silly, actually.

But anyway . . .

A study done by a student in Stanford's psychology department, Alex Jordan, proved that facebook is making us sad. How you might ask? Well, what are the main reasons you use facebook? I know when I'm brainstorming a status update or posting pictures, I always post something that reflects happiness. I'm always talking about the best moments in my life. (I know I'm not the only one doing this!) Jordan's research showed that humans have an uncanny tendency to overestimate other people's happiness. In other words, we see others happier than they actually are. But isn't this because happiness is all we allow most people to see?

Montesquieu once said, "If only we wanted to be happy it would be easy; but we want to be happier than other people, which is almost always difficult, since we think them happier than they are."

In another study, researchers round that one hundred and forty students were unable to correctly gauge the happiness of their peers, even if they were frequently around them.  A third study showed that students underestimated others' negative emotions and felt more alone after going on facebook.

Isn't it strange that we care so much about other people's lives and envy what we think their lives are like? In reality, facebook is all a show. We say and do what we wish we were doing and people "like" it. It's an attention getter, and a negative one at that.

This isn't to say that facebook is bad. I, myself, am actually quite addicted to facebook. But I do think that we all need to spend a little less time browsing our "friends" "walls."