Is Facebook making people lonely?

A typical student at the University of Southern Mississippi spends most of their free time on such social networking websites as Pinterest, Facebook, Tumblr and Twitter. What most students do not know is that the more time we spend on Facebook, the lonelier we are. According to a recent study, reported by Fox News, one in every three people experience feelings of jealousy and envy after spending time on Facebook. The study also reveals that positive posts of their friends smiling and having a good time triggered most of these negative feelings. 

The real question remains, is Facebook affecting our health indirectly? A lot of us, as I am guilty of it too, are driving ourselves crazy by constantly viewing people’s photos and recent status updates. As we get more sucked in, we can begin to feel this envy because our friend got five more likes on his photo than we did.

Therefore, Facebook becomes the new “face” of social interaction. Many of us would rather chat with someone on Facebook from our bedrooms rather than invite someone to Starbucks for a latte. Most of us feel the need to check Facebook five times or more a day because we want to be “in the know” about everyone’s recent relationship status or check one’s scandalous photos from the night before at Brewsky’s. All of the constant hype about knowing what everyone is doing and how others are doing it better is the primary cause of this jealousy. Social media has created this pool of competition where everyone enjoys flaunting his or her success. Although Facebook is great for keeping in touch with family and friends, it erases the personal connection we have with people.

My advice to the Facebook addicts out there? Start enjoying your own life, focus on what you have accomplished and be happy for others who have success in the things they do. Those feelings of loneliness and envy will dissipate if we spend more time of our day doing activities that relieve our stress or make us feel happy. These include going to the gym, eating fro yo with friends or writing that English paper a day early in order to go out on Thursday night.

The distraction from our own lives is Facebook. We should moderate Facebook just like the amount of red velvet cupcakes I could eat in one sitting. Just like anything in life, too much of one thing is not a good thing at all.