Do you remember what life was like before you cared what people you would never interact with on a daily basis in person were doing every waking minute? It’s hard to remember, but it’s likely you weren’t comparing your life to there’s—because honestly you had no idea what they were up to.
Author Daniel Gulati, a blogger for Harvard Business Review, says all that TMI information shared online is creating a subconscious “ranking” among friends when we compare someone’s online “status” to our real lives.
“Facebook is making us unhappy by making everyone else look really, really happy,” he says.
The social networking site also leads to a loss of productivity in work and leisure and can negatively affect close, in-person relationships.
“Meeting up in person, you get a much richer connection versus a video chat or a text-based chat. It’s cannibalizing the offline interaction. That’s what’s worrying to me — the future prospect of Facebook conversations and video calls as opposed to meeting up at the local coffee shop,” he says.
“Facebook is bringing down a lot of people’s daily sense of well-being.”
So how can you fix it? By setting aside a daily time to visit Facebook and taking one day off per week. You should also get rid of all those apps on your mobile phone and “strengthen real-world relationships,” he says.
I think it’s much easier to set aside time to look at Facebook than Twitter because of the constant updates, but every time I’ve even tried to take a break from the site, like clockwork I would get a text message from a friend asking, “did you see such and such’s status?” I think we’re stuck with the Internet monster we’ve created.
Do you find yourself comparing your real life to the “lives” of your Facebook friends? Do you feel like Facebook limits your productivity and hurts your real-life relationships?
Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.
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